Random Encounters
by KristenLynn
Summary: It's summer in LA and the heat is on! Will random hook-ups at Saga-themed nightclubs lead to permanent relationships? Inter-related serial lemon-shots with potential for more… Rated M for a really good reason. AU/AH, OOC, eventual canon pairs.
1. Chapter 1 Prologue: Waiting for Tonight

**A/N: **Something that I hope will be a little different…

Thanks to my betas laraisawkward and brandy_d, and my good friend, AgentM, for providing a male opinion/perspective.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own them, Stephenie does. I'm just making them do really fucking naughty things…

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*** * * * * Random Encounters * * * * ***

Now to feel your lips  
On my fingertips  
I have to say is even better  
Then I ever thought it could possibly be  
It's perfect, it's passion, it's setting me free  
From all of my sadness  
The tears that I've cried  
I have spent all of my life  
Waiting for tonight

--_Waiting for Tonight_, Jennifer Lopez

* * *

**Prologue**

May 9, 2009

2am

I lay on the bed, gasping, my body quivering in the aftermath of one of the most intense orgasms of my life. My hands were fisted so tightly that I wouldn't be surprised later to find that I had drawn blood with my short, straight fingernails. I looked down to observe the scene that was playing itself out between my legs. The tousled mop of copper-colored hair and the bronzed skin that covered high cheekbones contrasted sharply with the creamy skin of my thighs. My eyes were drawn to his long and tapered—and _very_ talented—fingers, which were gently massaging the knees draped limply over his shoulders. I couldn't actually feel them because my entire lower body was numb following my earth-shattering release, but I knew that they must be mine.

He raised his head to look at me with eyes that were lust-filled, their brilliant emerald depths turned obsidian with need. His intense gaze caressed every exposed inch of my naked flesh as it traveled up my torso to clash with my own eyes. His lips and chin were glistening wet. _From… me_. I watched, completely fucking entranced, as he lifted a hand from my leg and used the back of it to wipe across his face, then closed his eyes to savor the scent that lingered on his skin. _Holy fuck!_ My mouth parted on a shaky breath. I licked my lips and whimpered in response.

Standing slowly, he grasped both of my knees and gave a small tug so that my hips slid forward to the very edge of the bed. I felt him take a small step forward in order to position himself between my legs. I wrapped my calves loosely around his hips and crossed my ankles, locking them in place. The feeling in my lower extremities was slowly returning, and I felt his hands ghost up the inside of my thighs to rest on my pelvis. His thumb began to tease my overly-sensitive and still throbbing clit. I jerked, and then moaned in anticipatory response to his touch, the involuntary clenching of my internal muscles inducing a new surge of wetness that trickled down the inside of my leg.

One of his hands moved so that the tip of his finger followed the pathway of the droplet of moisture. The accompanying look in his eyes was beyond hungry; it was feral. He took another small step forward, aligning the tip of his hard length against my slick opening and rubbing gently. I moaned again, restlessly shifting my hips. His eyes bored into mine, silently begging for permission.

In that moment I knew that I should be scared or overwhelmed or… _something_… But for some reason, I wasn't, despite the fact that I didn't really know what to expect.

I honestly wasn't worried about the physical pain. I _am_ the horniest person that I know, and even though I had never slept with any of my past boyfriends, I had completely fucking destroyed three vibrators in the past twelve months. Nor was I worried about the emotional ramifications of sharing my body, which is what had always held me back in the past; I had clung to my virginity for the past twenty-six years using it as a shield to protect myself, refusing to relinquish control to anyone.

No. Tonight, I had no fear. Except for leaving without experiencing everything that his body promised, everything that I now knew I had been waiting twenty-six years to see and touch and feel.

I stared at the man positioned between my thighs, the sex god who made me forget where I was—Hell, he made me forget _who_ I was—and realized that for the first time in my adult life I was finally willing to surrender the control to which I had so desperately clung. I was willing to submit, because I had finally met my match. I knew that this would be a first to remember in more ways than one. His hands and mouth had already done amazing things, coaxing responses out of my body that I didn't even know were fucking possible. His impressive cock guaranteed much more. Yet, it was the connection I sensed between us that made this whole situation feel… _right_… and made me realize that I wanted _this_ more than anything I had ever wanted in my life. With that decision reached, I clenched my legs tightly around his waist and jerked him forward so that he surged into me.

My breath caught and my back arched off the bed as I gasped in pleasure. The feeling was like nothing that I had ever experienced, his fullness blistering me with its silken heat. It was hard to explain, but somehow I felt more than just filled; I felt… _fulfilled_.

The sensations produced by his body as it finally claimed mine was more than enough to send me spiraling downward in another rapid vortex of intense orgasmic pleasure. But when he thrust forward a second time in order to fill me completely, there was something more, something… _primitive_… blazing forth from his eyes that shattered my soul. I cried out in ecstasy as my body shattered right along beside it.

* * *

**A/N:** Hmmmm... just a little something I'm working on right now... Hope I tickled your fancy...

What'd you think?

*

**In the next episode:**

"Oh shit," I groaned, gritting my teeth against my impending release. "Stop!"

His hand immediately ceased in its motions, and I heard him whisper in my ear, "What's wrong, love?"

The sound of his velvety voice vibrating words of endearment in my ear almost sent me over the edge. I was throbbing painfully, and I could feel the scorching heat of his fingers where they touched me, even if they weren't moving anymore. I fought the inevitable with all of my might.

"I don't want to come like this," I replied in a quietly strangled voice.

"Why not?" he asked silkily.

"I want more. I want _you_. I need to feel you inside of me."

_Holy shit. Did I just fucking say that?_

His answering chuckle assured me that yes, _yes I did just fucking say that_.

"Don't worry, love. We have all night… and I plan on making you come over and over tonight."


	2. Chapter 2 Control Me

**A/N:** OK… I have been itching to try my hand at writing some smut for a while now. The idea for this story popped into my head a few weeks ago when I began to get a bit frustrated with the chastity of the characters in my other story, so I figured that I'd play around a bit on the side. This is planned as a series of [inter-related] lemon-shots that represent discrete moments in time, kind of like looking at the development of relationships in time-lapse. Just so you know, I am an Edward/Bella girl at heart, so theirs will be the main relationship that I follow. However, all the other characters will get the chance to tell their stories here as well.

For the sake of my time line, please pretend that the MTV Movie awards are held in early April rather than early June.

Thanks to my betas laraisawkward and Lezlee. I appreciate the encouragement and suggestions for making this story better!

**Rated M for a very fucking good reason!! **You have been warned: Gratuitous sexual material ahead. Let the smut-fest begin! Hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 2 Playlist (in order):** _Galvanize_ (The Chemical Brothers), _She Wolf _(Shakira), _Naughty Girl _(Beyonce), _Control Me_ (Keri Hilson), _Freak _(Sandy Rivera & Haze),_ Get Busy_ (Jamnesia)

I mean, really… How could I resist a song named _Get Busy_? Especially when that title is so fitting…*wink, wink* Be sure to check out the lyrics to _Freak_ as well… I love naughty songs!

**Disclaimer:** Twilight and all of its characters, dialog, situations, etc. belong to Stephanie Meyer. I have just taken her creations out of the chaste little world that she imagined for them and have allowed them do really fucking naughty things to each other.

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*** * * * * Random Encounters * * * * ***

I'll be your entertainment tonight  
I show you what ever it is you like  
Just sit back and enjoy the show  
And kick your feet up boy here we go  
I need all of your attention  
You can admire my dimension  
Don't work in on my definition for you  
Tonight there is only one thing for you to do

Remote control me  
Push the buttons to turn me on please  
Pick me up, put me on the wall please  
Just plug in the wire  
Make my volume higher, higher  
Pick up remote control

--_Control Me_, Keri Hilson

* * *

**Bella**

May 8, 2009

6pm

I stalked into my apartment and slammed the door behind me. After dropping my briefcase and books on the kitchen counter, I stomped towards my bedroom.

I was fucking pissed.

"Alice!" I hollered once I hit the hallway.

My roommate's head popped out of her bedroom. She raised her eyebrows in question at my black look and angry tone.

"I need a fucking drink. You wanna go out tonight?" I asked her.

A grin exploded across her lips.

"Hell, yeah!" she whooped excitedly, jumping up and down in a little happy dance.

Although I rolled my eyes at her exuberant response, a smile finally threatened to tweak the corners of my mouth, which had been stuck in a perma-frown all afternoon. My roommate was insanely perky, but I loved her energy. She had been trying to convince me to go out for weeks, but I had been working on my dissertation and hadn't felt like I should. All of that was done now; I had defended my thesis last week and the official document had been submitted to the graduate school office just a few days ago. I would be graduating in a few short weeks.

Plus, it had been a really shitty Friday and I needed to blow off some steam.

Alice followed me into my room and paused inside the door as I flopped down on my bed. I huffed noisily and shoved a hand into my hair in frustration.

"Where you wanna go?" she asked me.

I rolled over to look at her.

"I really don't give a flying fuck, as long as it has a bar and a shit-load of alcohol. I _need_ to get drunk tonight." I paused and twitched my lips in thought, then added, "I think it might even be a dancing night...."

Alice's eyes widened at my last statement, her smile broadening.

"A really cute bartender who gives us free drinks couldn't hurt, either," I added with a smirk.

I waggled my eyebrows in Alice's direction and we both broke out in a fit of laughter. Speaking at the same time, we both named our favorite club.

"_Twilight_!"

Later that evening, a cab dropped us at the exclusive club. Alice and I came here often enough that we knew the doorman by name now. We walked up to the entrance and said hello.

"Hey, Felix!" we chimed together, with broad smiles for the brawny security guard.

He returned our greeting with a smile.

"How you doing?" he asked in his best Joey Tribbiani impression, waggling his eyes at us.

We both laughed, but then I scowled and answered his question honestly.

"It's been a shitty day, and I need a drink. Really fucking badly."

His eyebrows raised at my dark tone and pissed-off expression, but he quickly waved us inside. We meandered over to the bar, and I sighed contentedly when I finally hoisted myself onto one of the tall barstools. We had arrived early—long before the club would be crowded—so that we would have ample time to indulge ourselves at the bar. It was a well known fact that I needed to be halfway blitzed in order for Alice to convince me to get wild and crazy on the dance floor. I had no coordination or natural rhythm whatsoever when sober, but after a few drinks, things got a bit easier.

It was just after ten o'clock in the evening, and the club was practically empty. The idle bartender immediately sauntered over to where I had taken a seat, a smile on his face.

"What'll it be?" he asked.

I smiled sadly at him in return, and my answer was clipped. "I really don't give a fuck as long as it's strong. No girly shit, tonight, okay?"

He raised his eyebrows at me in question, and I scowled in response. He slid his eyes to Alice, who was hovering by my side. She just shrugged and grinned. He grinned back at her before returning his gaze to look closely at me. His eyes narrowed in consideration.

My scowl intensified. "Don't fucking look at me like that, Jake. I need you to _not_ be my friend tonight. Just do your job and pour me a God damn drink."

His eyes widened at the tone of my voice as well as my harsh words, but then his smile broadened, too.

"Yes, Ma'am," he responded.

I watched as he mixed the contents of several bottles and was relieved when I saw no liquid that would dilute the alcohol being used. He poured the concoction into three small plastic shot-glasses and placed them on the counter in front of me. I raised my eyebrow at the third cup.

He explained, "Well, Bella, since I'm _not_ your friend tonight, you're buying the bartender a drink."

He nodded to me and picked up one of the small cups, draining it in a single gulp. Alice quickly grabbed one of the remaining two cups and mimicked Jake. Her eyes widened, and I heard her small gasp after she swallowed the alcohol. She waved her hand in front of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. Not to be left out—I was, after all, the one who had ordered the fucking drinks in the first place—I picked up the third glass and shot it down.

The warm sting of the alcohol sliding down my throat brought tears to my eyes, but I relished the momentary pain. I closed my eyes, savoring the burn, breathing slowly and evenly. When I opened my eyes, I nodded at Jake to make another.

Again, he looked to Alice.

"Alice isn't my fucking keeper, Jake," I snapped. "Pour the damn drink."

His eyes widened at my irritated tone, but he began mixing another round.

"Not to be rude, Bella, but what the fuck happened to ram this burr up your tight little ass tonight?" he grumbled.

Alice stepped forward to rest both arms on the bar as she looked at me inquisitively. I hadn't talked about my day at home earlier, either. After agreeing to go out, I had locked myself in the bathroom with my iPod and a glass of wine for more than two hours while I had taken a scorching hot bath. So she was curious as well. I sighed and reached for the cup that Jake had just placed in front of me. I raised my glass in cheers; the others mimicked my action. We all downed the shots together.

After another moment spent savoring the burn, I answered.

"Take a wild guess." My reply was half-statement, half-question. It was, however, one-hundred percent irritation.

Alice and Jake looked at each other, and I grimaced as I saw the twin smiles emerge on their faces. There was only one thing that seemed to get me this riled up lately, and they both knew exactly what that one thing was.

"Riley!" They shouted in harmony. Both were snorting in laughter.

I nodded infinitesimally, my scowl becoming permanently etched on my forehead.

"What'd he do this time?" Alice asked with a smirk.

I didn't answer immediately, instead signaling for Jake to serve another round of drinks. This time he plopped three bottles of beer on the counter and took a long swig out of one of them. I reached for one of the longnecks and twirled it in my hands.

This was my final semester in school. I was serving as a TA for my thesis advisor, and because I was a doctoral-level graduate student, I had been allowed to teach several classes. Riley Masterson was one of my students. He was a senior. He was also an arrogant ass who thought that he was God's fucking gift to women. Unfortunately, he thought that _I_ should be one of the women bowing down to kiss his feet. Or maybe his dick. I snorted. _As if_. His constant… attention… was starting to drive me fucking crazy. Today he had gone too far.

So had I, apparently.

"He grabbed my ass today as we were leaving the classroom," I seethed to my two best friends.

I saw the shock on both of their faces. Jake raised his eyebrows in silent question. I took a long drag from the bottle before responding. My answer was a combination of anger, pride and embarrassment.

"So I slapped him in the face. Hard." I paused and grimaced, then shrugged before continuing, "It left a mark."

Alice grinned at me and patted me on the arm. "Good for you, sweetie. That dumb-ass prick needed to be taught a lesson."

I sighed, and my shoulders slumped.

"So, what aren't you telling us?" Jake asked in concern.

I sighed again before answering in a quiet voice, "Dr. Aro saw me hit him."

Thomas Aro was my thesis advisor and mentor. He was also the Chair of the English Department.

"But surely he knows how inappropriately that boy has acted towards you…" Alice's comment trailed off.

"Of course he knows," I snapped. "But I am a senior-level grad student, a teacher, and I need to learn to control my, ah…what was the phrase he used… oh yeah… _baser instincts_…" I used air quotes to make my point. "As a full-time college professor, which I will be in the fall, behavior like that will not be tolerated."

I lowered my head in shame. I felt Alice's arm slide comfortingly around my shoulders and I leaned on her shoulder. She signaled to Jake and the third round of drinks appeared magically on the bar in front of me, no more questions asked. I raised my cup and they each did the same.

"To really shitty days…"

We downed this round in silence.

After that third round, I finally began to feel the effects of the alcohol. As the mellowness spread through my limbs, I decided that I'd sulked enough for the evening. The club had also begun to fill—_finally_—and the music had changed from quiet, conversation-friendly, restaurant-style tunes to the popular mix of dance music that drew people here in droves. It was time to have fun. I looked around appreciatively and smiled.

_Twilight _was one of the most popular clubs in L.A. It had opened last summer—the flag-ship in a series of clubs spawned by a couple of twenty-something entrepreneurs—and it always attracted a very exclusive clientele. It was not uncommon to see young Hollywood stars hanging out in the VIP section. In fact, the last time we had been here, we had spotted pretty much the entire cast from some vampire movie that had been in town for the MTV Movie awards. It was only because of Jake that we got in regularly; knowing the bartender at a hot club definitely had its advantages.

Alice was standing next to me, her arm still slung around my shoulder. As the bar filled with patrons, we had been squeezed closer together. I had scooted my chair back a bit so that we could share the small space, and she was practically sitting on my lap now. Jake was not-so-covertly checking her out, his eyes roaming over her scantily-clad body. I snickered as I watched Jake's continued blatant perusal of Alice; he had harbored a secret crush on her for the past year. If he kept looking at her like that, it would not be a secret for very much longer.

The tiny denim skirt and minute tube top that Alice was wearing didn't cover much; she might as well have been here in just her underwear. The _fuck me_ heels she was wearing—five inch platform stilettos—just added to the provocative image. But even I had to admit that in her obscenely revealing outfit, Alice looked like sex on legs tonight. And she fucking knew it. The way she moved, the way she positioned her body, the way she used her eyes to hold the attention of any admirer screamed self-confidence. I really fucking envied that.

I had allowed Alice to choose my attire tonight, but I still felt underdressed in my low-rise fitted jeans and skimpy tie-back top when standing next to her. Even wearing _my _four inch _fuck me_ heels. The top was Alice's, and how she had talked me into wearing it I will never know, because the style precluded wearing a bra. I could feel my long, loosely-curled hair brushing against my exposed back; if I tilted my head back just right, the ends would reach the waistband of my jeans. Those jeans were skin-fucking-tight and showed every little line, so when I couldn't find my favorite low-rise thong I had decided to forego panties as well. So now, not only did I feel… _exposed_… in the outfit itself, but by the fact that I had decided to go commando as well. Yet, on the other hand, there was something liberating about my lack of undergarments...

That feeling of freedom was most likely aided by the fact that I had just downed my fourth shot in about forty-five minutes. Alice was the instigator in this last round and had egged on my excessive alcohol consumption with the repetitive chant of _drink, drink, drink._ That chant had been accompanied by fisted hands hitting the bar in time to her words. I had obeyed her command. Who can resist Alice?

I was now chasing that last shot with the remainder of my beer. Even though he now knew the circumstances that had driven me to the bottle this evening, Jake was still looking at me with concern. I could understand this—I had only been drunk a handful of times in the past few years and Jake had been there for just about every one of them. It was rarely pretty when the alcohol wore off.

As I took another swig of my beer, I shifted my eyes away from Jake's concerned gaze to the mirror behind him in order to look at what was going on in the club without turning around. I paused in the act of lowering the bottle from my lips, frozen by the vision that was reflected back at me. Across the room on the other side of the dance floor, directly behind me, had to be the hottest looking piece of ass that I had ever fucking laid my eyes on. I gasped and proceeded to choke on the remaining swallow of beer. The liquid spewed from my mouth, and a few dribbles trickled down my chin. Alice snickered at my lack of grace and pounded my back between the shoulder blades. I ignored her, my gaze riveted on the reflection in the mirror despite the tears that were now streaming out of my eyes.

_Holy Shit_! Just a few moments ago, the thought that Alice looked like sex on legs had passed through my mind. I was mistaken._ Abso-fucking-lutely mistaken._ Compared to the man whom I was now eye-fucking like tonight was the last night on earth and I was a desperate virgin—which I hate to admit, I was—Alice and her revealing attire could only be considered foreplay at best. Or maybe more like a sloppy kiss from an unwanted admirer. This man didn't just look like sex on legs. He _**was**_ sex on legs.

_Fuck._ He was a smoking-hot sex god. My kind of perfect: chiseled cheekbones, patrician nose, prominent jaw line, wide forehead and beautifully set eyes. His copper-colored hair could only be described as bed-head; it was sexily mussed in a way that suggested that he had just partaken in a particularly satisfying bedroom romp. The lean musculature of his body was accented by the tailored cut of the clothing he wore. The fitted button-down shirt highlighted everything from his broad shoulders to his tapered waist, and the dark fitted jeans hugged his hips and thighs like an old, familiar lover.

My breath caught. My mouth was salivating, and I felt heat pool between my legs as I scrutinized him. He shifted slightly in my direction. My eyes slid slowly back up his exquisite form, caressing every bulge of muscle on their journey back towards his face, lingering over the washboard abs and well-defined pecs that were visible beneath the shirt that hugged his form like a second skin. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing toned and tanned arms, and the top two buttons of the shirt were undone; I could see a sprinkling of chest hair peeking out from all the way across the room. The five o'clock shadow that dusted across the lower half of his face accentuated his full lips. I licked my own involuntarily.

I raised my gaze further and _w_hen my eyes collided with his, the breath that I was holding rushed out of my lungs with a _whoosh_. I swore that our gazes locked in the reflective glass. My lips parted as my breathing became labored, and I felt hot color explode across my cheeks in response to the heat from his return stare. I was trapped and couldn't look away. The throbbing heat between my legs was joined by moisture.

_Oh my… Fuck!_ I had never gotten wet from just looking at someone before.

With only a glance, he controlled me in a way that no other man ever had; my body yearned for his possession. And in that moment, I knew _exactly_ why I had waited all these years, why I had never felt compelled to sleep with any of my past boyfriends. _I had been waiting for him_.

Maybe it was my unexpected arousal, maybe it was the alcohol-induced lack of inhibitions. Hell, I don't know. But for whatever reason, I somehow _knew_ that I had to go home with him tonight. I had never had a one night stand before. Hell, I had never had any sort of stand, period, with any guy that I had dated in my twenty-six years. Tonight that would all change.

He _would_ be my first.

"Bella?"

Jacob's questioning voice pulled me back to reality, and with a small shake of my head I broke my eye contact with _him_. I turned to look vacantly in Jake's direction but didn't really see anything beyond the explicit images I had conjured in my own brain. Images of my body entwined with his, joined intimately with his, my head thrown back in ecstasy, his eyes blazing as he spilled into me. My eyes lost focus as I fantasized, and I licked my lips again in anticipation.

"Damn, Bella… You haven't had _that _much to drink yet…"

"Earth to Bella…"

Jacob and Alice spoke simultaneously. With another small headshake, I attempted to dispel the erotic images from my brain and smiled wryly. Then I took a deep breath and addressed them both.

"Sorry, guys. Got caught up in a fantasy for a moment there. What were you saying?" I asked as I turned my face in Alice's direction.

Alice's eyes narrowed and she shook her head, silently saying _no_. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She had caught that shit. Alice was annoyingly astute; I had a feeling that she wasn't going to let this go.

My suspicion was confirmed when her eyes narrowed even further and she started tapping her foot impatiently on the floor before asking, "What do you mean by _fantasy_. What the fuck were you thinking about to make you look like that?"

"Like what?" I asked her, confused.

Alice took my chin in her fingers and directed my face back to the mirror. My eyes automatically returned to where _his_ reflection still resided. I felt my cheeks flame again when I registered that he was still looking in my direction.

"Like _that_." Alice stated in a definitive tone.

I reluctantly slid my eyes from his reflection to my own and was startled by the sight that met my gaze. _Holy fuck_. I looked as if I had just run a marathon. Or had just completed a marathon bedroom session. I felt my flush deepen so that now, in addition to my face, my neck and chest were suffused with color as well. My pebbled nipples were clearly visible behind the thin material of my shirt and my eyes were hugely dilated. My lips were parted, and I could see the small indention on my bottom lip from where my teeth had bitten into it as I fantasized.

I met Alice's eyes in the reflective glass and registered that she was still waiting for an answer, so I slid my eyes back to the sex god. He had turned away, and I was presented with the most beautiful masculine profile that I had ever seen. I felt my stomach clench at the sight. He was perfect. I moistened my lips with my tongue and sighed in longing.

"Him," I stated simply. Huskily.

I was eye-fucking him again, so I did not look to see if Alice's gaze had followed my own. But her sharply inhaled breath alerted me to the fact that she was now ogling him as well.

"Holy shit," she sputtered. "Oh my… well, fuck."

Alice was practically speechless. That was definitely a first.

I just grinned and nodded. The alcohol had given me a boldness I had never known before. Or maybe it was my overwhelming arousal. Again, I didn't know. But once again I was confident. My gaze was boring into him, and as I watched, he shifted again to meet my gaze in the mirror. My back straightened and my nipples pouted in response.

"I'm going home with him tonight," I whispered fervently. It wasn't just a statement. It was a promise. A promise to myself.

Alice just laughed. "Good luck with that."

I frowned, still staring and no longer breathing. Her laughter subsided, and I could hear the caution and restraint in her voice when she spoke again.

"Bella, sweetie? You know I love you. But don't get your hopes up too high, okay? That one might be shooting the moon."

I didn't even answer, just raised my beer bottle to my lips and drained the rest of the alcoholic beverage in one long gulp. My gaze was still locked with his in the reflective surface above the bar. After I swallowed, I left the bottle at my lips, and traced the lip of it with the tip of my tongue. Even from all the way across the room, I swore that I saw his breath hitch. Emboldened by his response, I shoved the bottle's neck into my mouth as far as it would go and was rewarded when I observed his hands balling into fists at his side.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alice looking in my direction, aghast. I heard her quietly mutter, "Then again, maybe not…"

Next thing I knew, Alice plucked the bottle that I had just molested with my mouth out of my hands and placed it on the counter. She grabbed my hand and tugged me towards the dance floor. We crossed to the raised stage in the back and wended our way to the front railing where we had a prime location to observe all that was going on in the entire room. I felt loose and giddy and more fucking aroused that I had felt in my entire life. I was also sufficiently soused to be able to dance. Angling my body so that I was looking in his direction—he had turned as well and was watching me in return—I began to sway.

Grabbing the rail in front of me, I tilted my hips from side to side slowly while I lowered myself to the floor in time with the beat of the music. My eyes bored into his, and I felt my lips part on a shuddering breath when his hands balled into fists again. My ass touched the ground, and my tongue darted out to lick my lips. His hips shifted in response, one hand pushing against the front of his pants to readjust himself. I worked my way back up slowly and released the rail to run my hands over my bared abdomen while my hips swayed and swirled. I pushed my hands up so that my fingers just barely brushed the underside of my breasts, and I saw his fisted hands clench. Lowering my hands back down to the waist of my jeans, I shoved my middle two fingers under the waistband; my index and pinkie fingers remained outside, and my thumbs rested on my belly button. His lips parted. I pushed down slightly, lowering the waist of my pants enough to expose the 'V' created by my tight lower abs. His tongue darted out to lick his lips. When I slid my fingers inward, they brushed against my soft, springy curls, and I gasped. He did the same. Another gush of warm wetness surged between my legs. I squeezed my eyes shut and moaned, reveling in the feelings of overwhelming lust and need.

When I opened my eyes again, he was gone. I frowned and stopped moving, at a complete loss. I turned slightly, scouring the dance floor looking for him, and found Alice staring at me with widened eyes and parted lips. I could hear her rasping breath over the sound of the loud dance music. The shocked look on her face caused me to blush furiously. _Holy fuck… what had I just done?_ Jesus. I had been paying such close attention to that one single person, focused only on him, _dancing_ only for him, that I was pretty sure that I had just touched myself in front of an entire fucking club full of people. My lips parted on my own sharply indrawn breath.

"Holy shit, Bella," she whispered in a strangled voice. "Where the hell did you learn to dance like _that_? Every guy in the room is fucking hard right now. I think even _I_ am turned on."

She shifted uncomfortably and scrunched her nose. "Yup…definitely wet."

She waggled her eyes at me, which caused me laugh lightly, but I still flushed at her words. Then she shrugged and took a step closer to me so that we could begin dancing together, the same as we always did when we went clubbing and got drunk. Alice loved attention, and two girls dancing together always garnered attention. I raised my hand to her waist and began our familiar ritual, running my hand up and down, going higher each time until I was practically cupping her breast. She reached around to grasp my hip, her index finger dipping into the back pocket of my jeans to pull me closer.

We were dancing so close together that I felt it when her breath hitched. I glanced down to see her looking around my shoulder. As I watched her, her eyes widened and her lips pursed in a little 'O' of surprise.

"And you definitely got _his_ attention."

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end in response to Alice's statement. A strange electric hum seemed to surround me; I felt his approach long before I felt his hands slide around my waist to rest on my bare stomach. He squeezed his arms slightly and pressed his body firmly against mine. I felt his erection pressing into the valley between my ass cheeks. I closed my eyes and moaned involuntarily at the contact. I released Alice's rib cage in order to lower my hands and fist the denim that lovingly caressed his thighs. He tilted his hips forward, and I moaned again at the feel of his hot hardness pressing against my lower back. When I tipped my head back onto his chest and it lolled to the side, he lowered his head and nipped at the tender flesh that had been exposed to him. My nails dug painfully into the flesh of his thighs in response and a low growl rumbled through his chest.

"God damn, you are one lucky girl," Alice chuckled into my ear. "You'd better fucking take advantage of that. Literally."

I opened my eyes slightly in time to see her slither away, then let my lashes flutter closed again in order to concentrate on the sensations that were now flooding through my body in response to his touch. We were swaying together in time to the music, my hips echoing the movements of his. His palms were pressed firmly against my stomach, his left hand resting under my breasts, the pinkie finger of his right hand teasing the skin beneath the waistband of my jeans. I arched into him, and my breath hitched when his hand moved up under my skimpy top to lightly brush the underside of my unfettered breast. I moaned when his thumb and index finger squeezed gently. I felt his response throbbing against my backside.

But when he dipped two fingers below the waistband of my jeans it was his turn to moan. The lack of barrier caught him by surprise and his groan turned into a strangled curse when his fingers tangled in my soft, silky hair. They curled into my flesh.

"Oh Jesus. _Fuck_," he hissed into my ear, his teeth grazing the lobe. His voice was a velvet-smooth rumble, low and melodic, and I felt my clit fucking twitch in response to his guttural curse.

I arched into him again, rubbing my ass back and forth against the front of his tight pants where his erection bulged. He bucked his hips into me. I relinquished my death grip on the denim fabric of his jeans in order to plunge my left hand into the silken auburn mess of his hair and pull his mouth closer to my overly sensitive skin I moaned when he bit down on the tender flesh at the juncture of my neck and collarbone and sucked roughly. Marking me. I reached my right hand around to grab his ass and pull him closer.

Somehow, while we were _dancing, _he maneuvered us into a dark corner at the edge of the stage. He spun me around and stepped closer, shoving one muscular thigh between my own. He pulled me close so that I was riding his leg. I could feel the warmth from his body permeating my crotch. The heat of his skin burned my ass where he had shoved his hands down the backside of my pants, pulling me closer. I felt his erection bump against my hip and my eyes dilated in response.

He was quite a bit taller than me, even in my four inch _fuck me_ heels, and I had to stretch in order to rest my hands on his shoulders. My breasts brushed across his chest with each movement, their sensitive tips hardening into painful points. He looked down, captivated by the visible evidence of my arousal. He pulled one hand out of my pants in order to shove it roughly under my top and squeeze my breast. When his thumb brushed against the turgid nipple it was my turn to curse.

"_Holy fuck_," I panted as I pressed my chest into his palm.

His eyes flared at my choice of words and his mouth crashed down, his lips crushing mine. He shoved his tongue into my mouth; I reveled in his taste and swallowed each huff and groan that he emitted as our hips ground together. The scruffy day-old growth of facial hair on his chin and upper lip tickled and scratched at the same time, causing my lips to tingle. I sucked his lower lip in between my own, and bit down. Hard. He grunted, and the fingers gripping my ass curled tightly—I felt his short nails score my flesh. He yanked me even closer, hitching one of my legs up around his hip. As our pelvises aligned in even closer contact, he pushed me further back into the corner so that my back was pressed against the wall.

At this point we were, for all intents and purposes, dry humping on the dance floor. My body was on fire, but I wanted more than what he could give me here in public. So much more. I wanted it all. I pushed my hands into his hair, relishing the feel of his silky locks slipping between my digits, and pulled his face closer as our tongues battled and licked and sucked and tasted. After a moment, I fisted his hair and tugged gently, pulling his lips away from mine. A satisfied rumble vibrated in his chest. I leaned back, resting my head on the wall behind me and opened my eyes to look at him. His eyes were hooded, dark with lust, and my breath caught when his tongue darted out to soothe his bruised lower lip. I whimpered with uncontrollable lust.

"You wanna get out of here?" I didn't recognize the voice that spoke—it was low and gravelly, lust-filled—but it must have been mine because his lips hadn't moved.

He nodded and lowered me back to the floor. We both took a second to readjust our clothing. Then he grabbed my hand led me across the back of the stage to an emergency exit, where we slipped outside. We emerged in the back alley behind the club, and he walked swiftly to the main road where we turned left. I had no idea where we were going, but I didn't give a shit as long as I ended up somewhere with him.

We walked for three or four blocks. I registered that we were now in the trendy and expensive area of town a few blocks to the north-west of the club. He led me to the entrance of one of the most exclusive condominium complexes in this part of town, and nodded at the doorman when he opened the door for us with a friendly, "Good evening, sir. Miss."

We walked to the elevator, where he inserted a key into the wall and hit the 'up' button. A minute later, an elevator opened for us. We walked in and I noticed that it only had one button on the panel: _PH_. I assumed that was the penthouse. My assumption was proven correct when the elevator opened on the top floor, and we emerged into an ornate lobby. There were four doors off the entryway. He pulled me behind him to the second door on the left, where he inserted another key and pushed the door open for me. I took one step through the doorway and was met by a stunning view. The apartment was huge—our entire two bedroom joint would easily fit in the sitting room here—and even in the dark I could tell that it was well appointed. Wall-to-wall windows faced to the west, and I could see lights glinting on the harbor in the distance.

_Who was this man_?

I didn't get any more time to wonder; at that moment I heard the quiet snick of the door behind me and felt his arms slip around my waist once again. His hands splayed across my stomach, and he jerked me back into him. Roughly. We fell backwards against the door, and once again I felt his erection pressing against my backside. His fingers dipped beneath the waistband of my jeans, mimicking my actions from earlier as he pulled them down slightly. He buried his face in my neck as he pushed his hands further beneath my tight pants. His fingers tangled in the soft curls at the apex of my thighs, and I hissed when I felt another wave of wetness surge between my legs. He grunted in frustration when the tight denim prevented his questing fingers from traveling any further south. I raised my shaking hands slowly—once I took this step, there would be no turning back—and undid the button on my jeans. He huffed as he pushed his hands further down. I whimpered when they encountered the top of my feminine lips and felt his hips buck into me from behind. He grunted again when his questing fingers were thwarted once more. I dropped my hand to my zipper, and we listened in the dark to the soft _click, click, click_ of each tooth loosening when I slowly lowered the tab.

His chest was rapidly rising and falling against my back. My own panting breaths matched his rhythm until his fingers finally pushed into the slick, hot wetness that had pooled between my legs and caused my breathing to stop altogether. My hips bucked forward into his hand and we groaned in unison. My head fell back onto his chest with a moan and my hands clenched into fists on his thighs as he found and flicked my aching clit. His teeth nipped my neck at the same time, and I immediately felt the tell-tale tremors building. Walking around in tight denim—make that tight, _wet_ denim—with no panties had teased my sensitive flesh for the better part of the last three hours. The feel of his long fingers working that magic spot was just the icing on the cake, and I knew I wouldn't last long. But I didn't want to come like this. I wanted more. I tried to wiggle away from his all-knowing hand, but he would have none of that shit and continued with his wickedly arousing ministration.

"Oh shit," I groaned, gritting my teeth against my impending release. "Stop!"

His hand immediately ceased in its motions, and I heard him whisper in my ear, "What's wrong, love?"

The sound of his velvety voice vibrating words of endearment in my ear almost sent me over the edge. I was throbbing painfully, and I could feel the scorching heat of his fingers where they touched me, even if they weren't moving anymore. I fought the inevitable with all of my might.

"I don't want to come like this," I replied in a quietly strangled voice.

"Why not?" he asked silkily.

"I want more. I want _you_. I need to feel you inside of me."

_Holy shit. Did I just fucking say that?_

His answering chuckle assured me that yes, yes I did just fucking say that.

"Don't worry, love. We have all night. But right now, I want to touch you the way that you were touching yourself earlier. You looked so fucking sexy dancing like that, and I want to feel you come apart in my arms as I touch you in the same way…"

His words, purred into my ear, sent me over the edge. I nodded my head silently, reaching up to grip his hair in my hands, pulling his face back to my neck where he began kissing and sucking again. The tingling sensation was building again, causing me to move restlessly and begin whimpering rhythmically. Realizing that I was really close, he moved his fingers away from my clit and instead stroked up and down my lips, spreading my wetness all around. The tip of his middle finger teased my entrance, and when he pushed it slowly upwards into my warmth, I moaned. I bucked my hips forward, forcing his finger in deeper. He stroked forward and then pulled it all the way back out. I whimpered at the loss. But he returned quickly, adding a second finger, to plunge back in and fuck me hard and fast with his hand. I pressed my hips against his hand, driving his fingers in deeper and groaning with pleasure.

"_Fuck_!"

His low, throaty chuckle tickled my neck. "You like that, don't you?"

"Fuck… Yes," I panted as his fingers withdrew, and then plunged back in again. And again. And again.

I was thrashing wildly against his hand and felt the building pressure in my lower abdomen that signified my release was close. I was panting and grunting and fucking whimpering in time to the movements of his fingers. I gripped his hair tightly and tugged. He hissed with pleasure and reached up to press my clit firmly with his thumb at the same time that his fingers plunged deep into my well. And with that one little motion I shattered, my internal walls clenching against his fingers tightly. I screamed, riding out the waves of pleasure that crashed over me.

"_OhfuckOhfuckOhfuck. FUCK! Yes. Yes. Yes."_

I slumped back against him, still chanting breathlessly. Only the hand that was still plunged into my nether-regions kept me from melting, boneless, to the floor. The arm still around my waist tightened, his fingers curling into my flesh, and I could feel his hot breath panting against my neck. He moaned softly, and as he pressed his hips more firmly into my backside I swore that I could feel his cock twitch.

As my body relaxed, so did the death-grip he had my stomach. He loosened his hold and helped steady me on my feet as he slid his other hand out of my now soaking wet pants. My legs felt shaky, and he chuckled when I stumbled forward slightly, but his hands settled gently on my hips and he turned me to face him. As he stared intently at me, he raised his glistening hand to his face and inhaled deeply before plunging his fingers into his mouth and licking his wet fingers. My breath caught. His eyes were hooded, yet wild. I was caught in his trap; he was the ultimate predator, knowing all the right moves, and I was his more-than-willing prey.

Yet in that moment, I wanted to give as good as I had just gotten. To please him, too. I ran my hands slowly from his shoulders down and across his chest to rest on the top button of his shirt. I stared intently at my hands, licking my lips, as I popped the button undone. Then the next, and the next, until all were undone and I had spread his shirt open. His sculptured body was perfection. His pecs were well-defined and highlighted by dark male nipples. I couldn't resist leaning in and trailing my tongue lightly over one of them. He hissed in response, so I opened my mouth and sucked the whole thing in, laving it thoroughly. I heard a small _thump_ and glanced upward to find his eyes closed and his head resting against the door. I felt his hands curl painfully into my hip once again.

I chuckled this time and threw his words back in his face. "You like that, don't you?" I moved my mouth the other side of his chest and repeated the action, sucking roughly then laving in apology.

"Fuck… Yes," he hissed, his words echoing mine from earlier.

While my tongue was twirling around his nipple, my hands traced down his flat stomach. His six-pack was impressive, but it was the 'V' made by the muscles above his hipbones that captured my interest. I lifted my head to look down at him, and felt my mouth water at the sight of the trail of dark hair that led to the area hidden by his pants. Those muscles just accentuated it. His happy trail. I had always wondered why it was called that. _Now I knew._ It made me exceptionally fucking happy to know that I was about to discover the treat at the end of that particular trail.

With that thought, my hands lowered to his belt and loosened it. I heard his shakily inhaled breath and felt his fucking beautiful abdominal muscles clench as my fingers brushed across the top of his pants, pulling the belt from its confining loops. I snapped it together, enjoying the sound of leather-on-leather—_CLAP_—and his eyes snapped open to look at me. I dropped the belt to the floor, and while staring him in the eye, popped the button on his jeans. I mimicked his motion from earlier, and pushed my hands underneath the waistband, following that fucking happy trail. My surprise was probably equal to what his had been when he had shoved his hands into my pants; he was going commando, as well. His jeans were too tight for any major maneuvering, so I pulled my hands back out and lowered the zipper. His eyes blazed more with the click of each tooth as it came undone.

When the zipper was finally lowered, I pulled the edges apart and eased the material down slightly over his hips, releasing his heavy cock. I looked down and sighed. I fucking loved sucking cock—_hell, when you're twenty-six years old, and refuse to sleep with your boyfriend, you've gotta do something to keep his interest, right?_—and this was a particularly impressive specimen. It was thick and long, protruding proudly from a nest of copper-colored curls. I gripped the shaft lightly in my hand and stroked once as I sank down to my knees in front of him; I was rewarded when a small glistening drop of pre-cum appeared at the tip. His hands had released my hips as I lowered myself to the floor, and they were now resting on my shoulders. They squeezed tightly when I stuck my tongue out to lick away that little drop. A strangled moan accompanied the squeeze.

Now that I was face to…well, um… head… with his manhood, I could really appreciate it. It had a slight downward curve, which was perfect for what I was about to do. With my hand still holding it, I guided his hot, hard cock to my lips. A guttural groan was ripped from his chest as I closed my lips around his length. I applied pressure to the underside of his shaft with my tongue, and I felt his hips buck forward in reflex. I tilted my head back in order to look at him, and when our gazes met, I wrapped my free hand around his hips and pulled him in, simultaneously releasing the hand that had been wrapped around his base. The downward curvature of his cock, combined with the backward tilt of my head, allowed his entire length to slide smoothly into the back of my throat. His eyes blazed wildly as I sucked. I pulled back, allowing his length to pull almost all the way out, again using my tongue on the underside of his shaft, and then yanked his hips towards me plunging his hard cock all the way to the back of my throat. His eyes rolled back into his head.

"Oh shit… That feels so fucking good," he moaned loudly as I bobbed expertly. His hands moved from my shoulders to my head, and he gripped my hair tightly around his fist, guiding me.

His hips were now thrusting forward and backwards in a steady pace, and I could hear his rasping breath which was huffing in time to the movements of his lower body. When I felt the pace of both his hips and his breathing increase, I pulled back. He grunted in frustration, so I quickly licked one of my palms, and grasped the base of his shaft. I started twisting my hand as my head bobbed and my tongue pressed on the underside of the head, which caused him to hiss and moan, pant and curse all at the same time. His whole body began to tremble, and I tightened my lips around his head, sucking _hard_. All the while, my tongue teased and my hand twisted. A strangled curse left his mouth as I felt him explode in my mouth, the warm stream hitting the back of my tongue.

"_Fuuuuuck_…"

His hand was knotted in my hair, and he pulled involuntarily when he released. I looked back up to find his eyes blazing into mine. While I maintained eye contact, I released his shaft from my hands and sucked his whole length back into my throat. He continued to groan and pulse, and I felt wetness surge between my legs yet again. His legs were shaking with the force of his orgasm, and I felt his knees buckle. I released him from my mouth as he slid down the door. His hand was still tangled in my hair, so when he crumpled to the floor, he pulled me with him. I landed in an awkward sprawl on top of him. He sighed and closed his eyes before wrapping his arms around me.

"That has got to be the hottest fucking thing that I have ever seen," he said a moment later.

I shifted slightly to rest my chin on his chest and look him in the eye.

"What?" I asked.

"You. Watching me watch you while my dick was rammed down your throat."

I just smiled at him. It _had_ been pretty fucking hot watching him watch me do that. The look in his eyes had been wild and crazed, and I loved knowing that _I_ had brought the 'sex god' to his knees. Literally.

We remained entwined on the floor for quite a while. His arms loosely held me, his fingers absently rubbing my upper arms and back, my chin resting on his chest. His eyes drifted shut as we came down. But as I was lying there, the reality of the situation began to sink in. I didn't even know his name. This was so far removed from my usual M.O. that I released an ironic chuckle.

He hummed at me in question, but didn't open his eyes.

"This is fucking surreal…" I let my statement trail off as I shook my head.

He opened his eyes slightly to look down at me, a questioning quirk to his brows.

I sighed. "I just had your 'dick rammed down my throat', as you so eloquently put it…" I looked pointedly at him and his lips quirked in an ironic smile. My gaze turned serious and somewhat self-conscious before I continued quietly, "…but I don't even know your name."

His eyes pinched slightly, and the smile began to slip from his mouth. He stared intently at me for a few seconds, and I almost felt as if he doubted me for some reason. But then a small smile tweaked the corners of his lips.

"Edward," he stated simply.

I introduced myself similarly. "Bella."

We continued to lie on the floor without speaking further. After a few moments, I broke the silence by asking, "So, Edward… you got a last name?"

This time I could not mistake the uncomfortable look that crossed his face. His smile faded completely and he stared at me intently again. Once again I felt as if he was searching for the truth in my eyes. But then his eyes softened and began pleading with mine.

"Not tonight," he said softly, a desperate look on his face.

I stared deeply into his eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on. At his continued silent pleading, I just nodded and returned my chin to his chest breaking our eye contact. But after a few minutes, I stared to feel a bit uncomfortable. As I attempted to push away from him in order to stand, I spoke.

"Well, um…." My eyes darted around, looking everywhere but at him. "This has been fun, Edward, but I should probably be going now…" My words trailed off when I felt his arms tighten around my shoulders, locking me in place. I stilled my movements and reluctantly looked up to meet his gaze.

His eyes had darkened and the uncertain look had vanished. It had been replaced by a wicked sparkle. He leaned forward until his cheek was just barely touching mine, his lips brushing my ear. His voice was seductively smooth when he spoke.

"That was just the appetizer, Bella." His voice was full of promise. "We've got all night, remember?"

_Fuck, yeah. I remember. _I sighed as I relaxed back against him. I had been counting on that.

He leaned back to look at me with hooded eyes. "I plan on making you come over and over tonight."

I felt myself blush; I couldn't fucking help it. He chuckled softly and raised a hand to brush across my now-flaming cheeks.

He sat up and slowly rose to his feet after we untangled our limbs. He reached out for my hand, and I placed it in his, allowing him to pull me to my feet. We both looked pretty rough—jeans unzipped and shirts askew, wild hair and wilder eyes. I had just experienced one of the most intense orgasms of my life and had given one in return, yet somehow I knew that we hadn't even touched the tip of the iceburg when it came to that department; it was only going to get better.

My body started humming in awareness again. I felt as if I had been in a constant state of arousal for the past several hours, and it looked like that wasn't going to change anytime soon. I felt my breath quicken and my nipples harden in anticipation. His eyes blazed as he registered the desire in my eyes and my body's involuntary reaction to my silent assessment.

Tugging my hand, he led me down the dark hallway.

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**A/N:** OK guys, what do you think? Should I keep this story going? Do you want to know what else Edward does to her this evening? Let me know...

:)

KL


	3. Chapter 3 Hollywood

**A/N: **Hey All! I'm back… Sorry this has taken a little while, but I have been swamped at work and have been working on several one-shots for contests. Speaking of which… if you like this fic, and are looking for some more racy reading material, _please, Please, PLEASE_ go check out the Bridal Style smut-shot contest. This one-shot contest is anonymous, so I can't tell you which one is mine, but take a minute to read all the entries and leave a review:

http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/u/2122305/bridalstyle

Voting starts Dec 7.

Thanks to my beta laraisawkward. I appreciate her help with this story as well as her incredibly complimentary e-mails. Thanks, chica! We science geeks gotta stick together. :)

**Chapter 3 Playlist: **_I'm in L.A. B*tch_ (LMFAO & Pitbull), _I Gotta Feeling _(The Black Eyed Peas), Sexy B*tch (David Guetta ft. Akon), _Dangerous_ (Kardinal Offishall),_ Hollywood_ (Madonna)

**Disclaimer 1: **I do not know anything about owning/managing nightclubs, I only know the fun that can be had in them (although it has been a while...). LOL. So… Please cut me some slack if necessary…

**Disclaimer 2:** Twilight and all of its characters, dialog, situations, etc. belong to Stephanie Meyer. I have just thrown them together in a nightclub so that they can misbehave in ways that she never imagined!

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* * * * * Random Encounters * * * * *

Everybody comes to Hollywood  
They wanna make it in the neighborhood  
They like the smell of it in Hollywood  
How could it hurt you when it looks so good

_--Hollywood, _Madonna

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Emmett

May 8, 2009

10:30pm

Edward and I walked back to _Twilight_ following a late dinner. We entered through the back door in order to avoid the crowd out front and to easily access the offices that were located in the rear of the club. After unlocking my office door, I crossed the room and flopped into the comfortable chair that resided behind my desk. Edward collapsed onto the leather sofa that rested against the wall next to the door. He grabbed one of the magazines from the glass coffee table and flipped through it mindlessly.

I looked around my small office with an enormous sense of pride. The past year had been far more successful than either of us had ever fucking imagined. _Twilight _had opened a little over a year ago. It had immediately been a huge hit. _New Moon_, our martini bar, had followed shortly thereafter, and _Eclipse_, our restaurant/bar/live music venue, had opened just after New Year's. Our final establishment, _Dawn_, would be opening in about two months. As the magnitude of our success sank in, a wide smile spread across my face.

Edward tossed the magazine back onto the table with a disgruntled sigh—he had probably seen another photo of himself, and he fucking hated that shit. His head dropped back to rest against the cushions of the sofa. He propped his feet carelessly on the table in front of him. He looked exhausted. Edward worked his ass off in order to prove to everyone—especially his father—that he was _not_ his grandfather. He had purposely avoided the spotlight career choices, choosing accounting and business management so that he could work behind the scenes. But with the last name of Cullen, in a city where Cullen was King, he could never completely evade the spotlight. The photos that inevitably surfaced in the gossip rags were a constant fucking source of irritation for him.

Despite his weariness, he looked impeccable, as always. I envied him the ease with which he transitioned between his two worlds; the daytime Edward ran his late grandfather's talent agency, while the nighttime Edward was my not-so-silent partner.

Let me clarify that statement… Edward never interfered with how I chose to run our clubs—he deferred to my club management knowledge—but he had lots of ideas about how to make each of our establishments more marketable. He spent every waking hour that he was not at his day job pouring his heart into our joint endeavor.

It was starting to catch up with him.

"Dude…" I called to him, and I saw one of his eyes open in a narrow slit when he turned his head in my direction. "Go home. Get some fucking sleep. There's nothing here that can't wait until tomorrow."

I gestured to the books that littered my desk—records of our income and expenses, manifests for food and alcohol, lists of artists that had performed in our clubs previously and acts that we were researching for future gigs. Edward had taken it upon himself to be in charge of entertainment for our clubs. He booked the live acts for all of our special occasions here at _Twilight_ as well as the bands that played regularly at _Eclipse_. Music was Edward's secret passion

He shook his head in the negative, as I had known all along that he would.

"Fine," I retorted, tossing him the potentials book. "Go ahead… Just don't do it on my account."

My words might have been exasperated, but I knew the truth. I was God damn fucking lucky to have Edward Cullen as my partner.

I had the know-how to run the clubs; hell, I had practically grown up in the offices of clubs just like this—some of the hottest clubs in Chicago—watching my father do the same thing. I had spent three years post-college working with him, learning from him. But just like the saying about two cooks in the kitchen… Well, needless to say, having two general managers of a club was not conducive to things running smoothly. Especially when I was butting heads with my own father.

I had always dreamed of owning and running my own place. I had talked to Edward endlessly about the possibility, ever since he became my little brother in the fraternity at college over ten years ago. He had always encouraged me to pursue my dream. But it takes money to open a joint like _Twilight_. A shit-load of money. Which was something that I didn't have and would never see in my lifetime. Not to mention connections.

Edward had both, although that hadn't always been the case. The agency and the money—the necessary shit-load of money, I might add—had been inherited three years ago when his grandfather, Hollywood legend Anthony Cullen, had passed away. Aware of my growing frustration, and dealing with career frustration of his own, Edward had called me to propose our now-partnership.

That phone call had changed both of our lives. Less than twenty-fours later, I had been on my way to L.A. The rest, as they say, is history.

I smiled at the thought, once again looking contentedly around my office, and began balancing the books.

A short time later, the tenor of the music coming from the front of the club changed, and I knew that things were kicking up for the night. It was time to go work the floor. I rose from my desk and walked to the office door, my gaze falling upon Edward. His head was once again tipped back and the book was resting on his chest. He was snoring softly. I kicked his feet from the table, awakening him with a jerk.

I laughed. "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty."

"What the fuck…" he grumbled, absently rubbing his hands across his face before plunging them into his hair.

I snorted and repeated my earlier suggestion. "Go home, Ed."

His eyes narrowed. But there was something else besides his irritation with my use of the hated nickname. I had a feeling that Edward didn't like spending a lot of time in his empty condo, that he really fucking hated _being_ alone—which was, I suspected, another reason why he spent so much time here with me in the evenings. So I relented just a bit.

"Fine. If you won't go home, how about you come with me to check out the floor? Make sure everything is copasetic…"

He nodded and rose to his feet, still looking like he was half-asleep. He shoved his hands back into his hair, re-tousling the already messy strands. The just-from-bed appearance had become his signature look. I shook my head and my mouth quirked into a wry smile. Women loved that shit. _Sex hair_, they called it. I reached up to brush my hand across my tightly-shorn locks in contemplation; I don't think that I could pull off that particular look.

We left my office, wandered down the short hallway, and pushed through the door that opened at the back of the club. It was right at eleven o'clock, and the music had transitioned into popular dance music. The bar was packed, there were a good number of people already on the dance floor, and if the constant influx of hot, young bodies was any indication, there was likely a long line of people waiting to get in the front door. The VIP section was cordoned off, as we were waiting for a party to arrive—it was some young actress's twenty-first birthday.

It was going to be a good night. Fridays usually were. Hell, if I was honest, every night was a pretty fucking good night these days.

My eyes drifted back across the room and came to rest on a girl with really long, dark brown hair who was sitting at the bar. The ends of her hair came to rest right above the tattoo that resided on her lower back, sitting atop of the waistband of her low-rise jeans. My eyes slid to Edward. He hadn't noticed her yet. I smiled.

"Yo, Ed…" I called to him.

I heard his exasperated sigh at my repeated use of his shortened moniker. He turned to look at me in inquiry.

"I found one for you," I commented with a smile.

He rolled his eyes. "Not again, Emmett. The last girl you 'found for me' was smoking-hot, yes, and was great in bed, yes, but she was twenty two and looking for something more than just the good time I provided. She wanted a boyfriend. Shit, she wanted _me_ as her boyfriend, and thought that having sex meant that we were a couple or something. It took me a fucking month to get rid of her…"

I snorted. That shit had been pretty funny—the girl had followed Edward around like a lost puppy dog for weeks. She called him, she sent him emails and letters, and she had even showed up, unannounced, at his office. That had been the final straw, and I think that some sort of restraining order had been issued. My smile faded. Okay… maybe it wasn't all that funny…

"Sorry about that, dude. Really!" I asserted when he shot me a disbelieving look. "But seriously, this one looks a little older, a little more self-sufficient. Plus, I _really_ think you're gonna like this one…" I paused for emphasis, and Edward rolled his eyes again.

"She's marked."

Edward immediately jerked to attention and began looking around the club. "Where?"

"Twelve o'clock. At the bar. Long brown hair."

I heard his sharp intake of breath when he located the girl. And then the tattoo. It was so large that the entire design—several blue butterflies surrounded by scripty swirls that stretched all the way across her lower back—was visible from across the room. I chuckled.

Edward was a sucker for a tramp stamp.

Knowing that he would be entertained for a while watching the girl, I started my rounds. I methodically made my way around the floor of the club, checking in with the doormen—the line was already backed up all the way around the block—then the DJ in the hidden booth inside the main entrance, and finally the bartenders. I snuck a quick glance at the girl sitting at the bar when I stopped to talk to Jacob, and I realized that she was really quite beautiful. Yes, Edward would definitely like this one. I smiled triumphantly.

By the time I reappeared at Edward's side, he was obviously engaged in to pretty serious eye-fucking with the girl from the bar. She and a friend had just moved to the dance floor, and she was now dancing against the rail that encased the upper portion of the dance floor. My gaze flickered between Edward and the girl, and my smile widened. It appeared that she was dancing just for him—her eyes were focused solely on him—and he was just as unaware of anything going on around him. I have to admit that just about every guy in the club was watching her, but I was still in work mode and couldn't allow myself to be distracted.

I returned to perusing the crowd and frowned when I caught a glimpse of strawberry blonde curls. _Oh, fuck._ Not tonight. _Please… not tonight_.

"Edward.," I hissed. But I got no response. He was completely entranced by the dancing girl, and at that moment, I heard his strangled gasp. I looked up to find that she had shoved her hands down the front her pants. I choked.

"Edward!" I called, a bit more forcefully this time.

He turned to look at me with wild eyes. I sighed. My problems could wait.

"_Go_," I commanded. As sexy as she was, I really couldn't have _that_ kind of dancing going on in my club.

He was gone before the word was out of my mouth. Leaving me alone. Leaving me fucking vulnerable, if those strawberry blonde curls belonged to whom I had a sinking suspicion that they did. In an act of self-preservation, I hightailed it back to my office before my own personal fucking version of puppy dog hell came looking for me. Again.

Thirty minutes later, I was immersed in the spreadsheet that tracked our expenditures when I heard my office door open. Without looking up, I addressed Edward.

"You heading out?" I asked.

There was no response except for the sound of the closing door. I was unaware that something wasn't quite right until I heard the lock slide shut with a resounding—at least to my ears—click. A cold chill swept across my skin, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end in warning. I raised my eyes hesitantly and cursed silently at the sight with which I was met.

She was wearing an extremely short mini-skirt with knee-high stiletto-heeled boots that showed off her long, lean legs. Her tight, button-down shirt was tied in a knot at her midriff and the top several buttons were undone—I could see her corset-type bra peeking out at the top. Ample breasts spilled forth from the flimsy, and completely fucking inadequate, confinement. My cock hardened involuntarily, and I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. My eyes warily continued their upwards journey and met navy blue eyes that smoldered with sexual intensity.

As soon as my eyes met hers, she began to saunter across the room towards my desk, her hips swaying provocatively, a predatory look in her eyes. I groaned quietly. _Shit!_ I knew that look. Hell… I was the fucking master of that look, so I knew _exactly_ what it meant. And though my body was screaming at me to take everything that she was so obviously offering, I knew I had to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible.

"What the hell do you want?" I asked her, my tone harsh, exasperated. I already knew the answer; her clothes, the way she was walking, and the look in her eyes told me all that I needed to know. But I still had to ask.

"You know what I want, Emmett," she purred as she continued her slow sashay across the room towards my desk. Her eyes bored into mine.

_Shit. Fuck. Hell and damnation!_

I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration.

"How the fuck did you get back here, Tanya?" I asked in a weak attempt to change the subject.

She chuckled at my choice of words.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck…_

"I followed Edward when he left," she answered. The proximity of her voice alerted me to the fact that she had reached my desk.

_Great. _My fucking wingman had left. He had most likely gone home with the tattooed girl—the way she had been dancing left me little doubt as to the activities in which they would soon be engaging. I really fucking envied Edward tonight. Another frustrated groan escaped my lips.

Tanya was fucking gorgeous. Tall, with huge tits and the most glorious strawberry blonde hair I had ever fucking seen—and I was quite partial to tall, busty blondes. But she was twenty-one, still in college, and girls like that were looking for more than I was in the market to give—they wanted a _relationship_. Despite all of that, I probably would've fucked her anyways, consequences be damned. She was that fucking hot. But one last thing held me back: she was the cousin of my best friend. And my best friend just happened to be my business partner.

In other words, she was a temptation in which I could not fucking afford to indulge.

"Tanya…" I choked her name out. "We've had this conversation before…" I kept my eyes shut, hoping that if I didn't see her, my insistent fucking erection would go away.

_That_ was hoping for too fucking much.

With my eyes squeezed shut, my other senses were heightened. I smelled the delicate bouquet of her floral perfume a second before her hand touched my cheek, scorching me with its unexpected intensity. I flinched at the contact, and she chuckled knowingly. Her hand fell away from my face.

"Emmett…" she cajoled, "Why don't you just give in?" She paused, and I heard a small gasp followed by a sexy little moan. "Oh, fuck, baby…" her voice was full of awe and lust and predatory feminine instinct. "I can see how badly you want to…"

I opened my eyes to find her standing in front of me, right beside the desk, just as I had deduced. She was staring at the obvious bulge in my pants. I groaned in agony, but I still made my best effort to fight the valiant fight.

"I can't… No… I _won't_ do this. You're a nice girl and you deserve more than I can give right now…"

Her head was shaking. "No. I don't need any promises. I just want you. Here. _Now_. No strings."

My already hard cock throbbed in response to her words. The curse escaped my mouth before I could control it.

"Fuck!"

I raised my angry eyes to spear her with a stare. "I won't do this, Tanya," I snapped, repeating my earlier promise through gritted teeth, trying my damnedest to convince myself. "Hell, you're Edward's fucking _cousin_!"

She took a sideways step in order to position herself between me and the desk. I pushed back in frustration. I _needed_ to put some space between us, to separate myself from the temptation that she was freely offering. That noble move was my undoing.

As I watched, she hitched herself up onto the desk.

_Fuck me… She wasn't wearing any fucking panties!_

Her smile turned wicked and I groaned again, this time in longing. I looked down—I couldn't fucking help it—and her wet, pink lips smiled up at me from beneath the landing strip of peach-colored curls at the apex of her thighs. My fingers itched to touch her, but I fisted them in restraint. As if sensing my inner struggle, she leaned back on her elbows and allowed her legs to fall apart, providing an even better view of the smooth-shaven lips of her pussy. My cock about jumped out of my pants and my tenuous resistance crumbled. I lifted my hand, letting it come to rest on the smooth skin of her upper thigh.

"_Yes_…" she hissed.

I rose to my feet and stepped forward to stand between her knees. Pushing my hand up to the bottom of her skirt, my thumb trailed inward to rest just shy of the tender flesh that I was now desperate to fucking touch. She wiggled her hips, encouraging the contact.

I called her name. She hummed in response, but did not open her eyes.

"Look at me," I commanded. When her eyes cracked open to meet mine, I stared intently at her. "This doesn't change anything."

"I know," she replied.

I nodded and pushed my thumb forward to sink into her wet folds. She moaned softly. My thumb slid upwards to press firmly against her clit, and her hips jerked in eager response.

"_Oh, fuck_!" she moaned. Her back arched and her fists clenched in anticipation.

I moved my thumb, trailing slow, firm circles on her clit, while my fingers slowly teased her slick opening. She bucked her hips against my hand and moaned again in pleasure. I looked down between her legs in order to watch my hand stroking her. Unable to resist any longer, I plunged two of my fingers into her warm, wet well. My breath caught at the feel of her hot, tight walls enveloping my fingers.

At my manual penetration, Tanya fell back on my desk with a gasp, hands gripping the edges, head thrashing with pleasure. I took a few moments to savor the feel of my fingers stroking into her silken heat before I pulled back. I knew that if I didn't slow things down now, this would all be over in a matter of minutes. If I was going to indulge in this particular temptation, I _needed_ it to last longer than a few fucking minutes because there would _not_ be a repeat performance.

Since I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly.

When I removed my hand from beneath her skirt, she whimpered. But when my hands moved up to untie the knot on her shirt and roughly yank it open—popping the two buttons that were actually fastened in the process—she moaned again in anticipation. I ran my hands up the smooth silk of her corset, palming her breasts. I took a step closer, positioning myself between her thighs, and leaned down to nuzzle at the creamy flesh that flowed from the top of the rigidly boned fabric. Her hands relinquished their grip on my desk and lifted to clasp the back of my head gently, holding my mouth to her breast.

I slipped my tongue beneath the lacy edge of her bra, and a ragged little groan escaped her chest when I licked her pebbled nipple. I undid the fastenings at the top of the corset so that her breasts spilled out. They were fucking beautiful; her full, round globes were perfectly shaped with pert, pink nipples that begged to be touched. I was more than willing to comply. Sucking one turgid nipple into my mouth, I laved it with my tongue. At the same time, I rubbed the other with my hand, gently pinching it between my thumb and index finger. She began panting and whimpering, arching her back to press her breasts more firmly against my mouth and hand. When I moved my mouth to her other breast, giving it equal attention with my tongue, her hands trailed down from my head to push into my shirt and find my nipples. I hissed as her fingers pinched my sensitive flesh.

She clawed impatiently at my shirt, and I heard buttons tinkle against the floor when she tore it open roughly, just like I had done to hers. Her small hands traveled over the planes of my chest and down my stomach to come to rest at my waist. I sucked in a ragged breath as she shoved her fingers underneath the waistband of my jeans. Without relinquishing the morsel in my mouth, I reached down to grab her wrists, halting their quest to unbutton my pants. When she huffed in frustration, I chuckled.

"Tanya?" I asked, looking up to her face, exposing her now-damp nipple. I couldn't resist the opportunity to blow on the turgid tip. It puckered tightly in response, right as she hummed her response. She was still struggling to free her hands from my grip.

"Unless you want this to be over really quickly, hon, you'd better slow down. I'm pretty worked up right now..."

I directed her hands to the hard ridge behind the zipper of my jeans, pushing against it in order to show her my arousal. She moaned and used a finger to stroke me. I hissed in response, gripping her wrists more tightly in an attempt to pull her hands away from my overly-sensitive, throbbing cock.

"No…" she moaned, pulling her hands in futility. "I want to touch you…"

I continued to hold her hands still, and she grunted. She opened her eyes to flash an impatient look at me.

"I want to touch you." She repeated firmly. "_Now_."

The lust in her eyes was obvious, and I realized that she was just as desperate for this as I was. I released her wrists, and she sat up, wiggling her way to the front of the desk. Her breasts spilled out of the unfastened top, bouncing beautifully in front of my face. I stared at them to avoid looking onto her eyes as her hands popped the button on my jeans and slowly lowered the zipper. My hands clenched at my sides as her fingers slipped into my boxers and confidently gripped my dick. A ragged breath whistled between my lips.

Her hand began stroking me slowly and firmly, expertly—she knew what she was doing—adding a little twist on the upstroke so that she could push against the head with her palm before she twisted back around for the down stroke. I leaned forward to brace my hands on the desk on either side of her. On her next stroke, I groaned and pushed my hips into her hand, leaning forward to take her pouting nipple back into my mouth. This time, she hissed, and the pace of her hands increased.

I was harder than I knew was possible, and I began pumping my hips rapidly into her talented hands. After a moment, her frustrated grunts alerted me to her own discomfort. I shoved a hand back underneath her skirt, and a satisfied moan emerged from her chest as my fingers teased her slick skin. With only minimal prelude, I shoved two fingers in, and she simultaneously jerked backwards and groaned in pleasure.

"_Fuck, Tanya… You're so wet_…" My fingers stroked again, and she shivered when I curled my fingers in to tickle her sweet spot. Her hands pumped faster in response.

I felt the tightening in my lower abdomen that signified my release, but I did _not_ want to come like this. Since I was finally indulging in Tanya Masen, I wanted more than just a fucking hand job. I wanted it all. I pulled my hand from her dripping pussy and gripped her wrists again.

"Stop," I quietly commanded.

She whimpered, and I chuckled in response. "Don't worry, hon, I'm gonna give you all that you want, and then some. But not like this."

Her eyes opened to look at me questioningly. I smiled wickedly and watched as awareness dawned in her eyes. Her lids lowered slightly and she licked her lips.

"How do you want me?" she asked seductively.

_Fuck!_

At her provocative question, my already rock-hard cock tightened even further. The possibilities were endless. I took a step backwards and felt my chair hit the back of my knees. I pushed my jeans over my hips, allowing them to fall to the floor. Her eyes widened when my cock sprang free. Yeah… I was pretty fucking well-hung. I lowered myself into my chair and reached down to pull my wallet from the pocket of my pants. I extracted a condom, and she watched with lust-filled eyes as I rolled it on.

"Come here."

She pushed herself off the desk and took the step necessary to close the distance between us. She stood, trembling, in front of me. I reached up to unbutton her skirt and let if fall to floor at her feet, and I pushed the shirt off her shoulders so that she was standing before me clad only in her unfastened corset and knee-high boots. I leisurely perused her body with my eyes, then let my hand follow the same path, starting at the full lips of her mouth, trailing between her breasts, and finally coming to rest between the wet, swollen lips that protected her femininity. I stroked my fingers slowly through the wetness at the juncture of her thighs, and her breath hitched.

I raised my hands to her hips and turned her around, then pulled her backwards to sit on my lap. She was straddling me, and my aching cock rested just beneath her hot core. I reached around to plunge my hand back into her silky curls, my fingers teasing her clit. Her hips jerked in response, and my dick slid through her wet folds to emerge from between her pink lips. I couldn't help but watch as I lowered my hand to grip the head of my cock; I rubbed it against her swollen clit, causing her to moan loudly. I thrust forward roughly and she gasped.

"Are you ready for me?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. I smiled at her enthusiastic reply.

"Fuck, yes!"

Lifting her hips so that I could grip the base of my shaft, I aligned myself against her slippery entrance. I rubbed it gently across her slick opening and pressed forward slightly to slide the head inside. Her breath caught right before she sank down, impaling herself upon me in one quick move. I grasped her hips to hold her still while I adjusted to the scorching hot heat that surrounded me. Leaning back in my chair, I pulled her upper body with mine so that she was reclining against my chest. Her legs fell open even further, and I slid a hand around to once again pay homage to her now-throbbing clit. She gasped and began rocking her hips.

Within seconds, my hands were no longer holding her still, but were actively encouraging her up-and-down motions. I continued to tease her clit with my fingers, and when I pushed my hand just a bit further down, I could feel my hard length pumping in and out of her. We were both panting in time to the thrusting, and a sheet of sweat covered both of our bodies. I could feel sticky hotness sucking us together at every point where our bodies made contact.

The tingles in my abdomen informed me that my climax was close. The way that she was panting and gasping signified that she was close as well.

"Are you gonna come for me, Tanya?" I asked.

"Uh huh," she grunted, grinding furiously against me.

Her hands gripped the arms of my chair and she leaned forward, trying to find a better angle. The shift of her hips allowed for deeper penetration, and I gritted my teeth against the pressure building in my stomach. I pressed my fingers against her clit and rubbed furiously as her hips rose and fell rhythmically on my cock. Eventually I heard her moan.

"Yes… Yes… _Oh, fuck, Yes_!"

As her body clenched around me, I gave into the release that I had been holding back.

"_Fuuuuck_!" I shouted triumphantly into her hair.

She sank back against me, and I wrapped my arms loosely around her waist, holding her still. We were both breathing raggedly, our breaths coming in short gasps. I leaned forward to bury my face in her glorious blonde hair, and as I inhaled, I smelled the light floral scent that I would forever associate with Tanya. The scent that I would never smell again, at least not in this way.

As great as this had been—and it had been fucking fantastic—I knew that what had just happened was wrong. I couldn't afford to be weak again in the future. I would have to resist the temptation.

With that realization, I shifted underneath her. She took the hint, and rose to her feet. Without looking back at me, she bent over to retrieve her clothing. As she was redressing, I removed the condom and pulled my jeans back on. My shirt was ruined, but luckily I kept some extras here at work. I stood and walked to the small wardrobe on the other side of the room, which served two purposes. Not only did I retrieve a new shirt, but I put some much needed distance between the two of us. I just needed to breathe for a minute, so I took my time selecting a new shirt.

After I pulled the shirt on, I turned to face Tanya. I didn't really know what to say, so I just smiled tightly at her. She smiled in return, and I could see the wheels turning in her head. Her mouth opened as if she wanted to say something, but then it snapped shut. She was confused, and I couldn't blame her. But I was resolved in my decision.

I took a deep breath, and smiled again, encouraging her to talk. I knew that I had to nip whatever hope she was fostering in the bud.

"Maybe we could do this again, sometime…" her voice trailed off and her shoulders shrugged slightly. Her hopeful eyes searched mine, and I saw her face fall as she read my non-verbal response.

I smiled sadly and confirmed the message with my words. "I don't think so."

At her devastated look, a twinge of guilt flooded through me. I sighed in frustration. "Tanya, I have told you time and time again. I don't think that _this_…" I gestured my hands between her and me "…is a good idea. You knew how I felt, yet you came here tonight anyways, looking for something… I won't say that what happened here tonight is a mistake, because it wasn't. It was fuck-hot."

I smiled at her encouragingly, trying to show her that this was not about her. It was about me. She smiled in return, and I could tell that she wanted to say something. So I cut her off.

"But it changes nothing."

Her smile fell again, but she nodded in understanding. I stepped forward, closing the distance between us so that I could kiss her on the forehead. I wrapped my arms around her in a comforting hug and felt her arms slip around my waist in return.

"I'm sorry that it can't be any different. But it can't. There are just too many difficulties, too many differences between us. If you weren't Edward's cousin…"

But she was.

I felt her arms squeeze my waist before she took a step back. Her hands brushed across my hips, and I felt her hand pause at the pocket of my jeans and press softly before she finally stepped away.

She looked at me sadly, but in resignation. "I know. I even said 'no promises, no strings', so I guess that I'll just have to live with that."

I nodded in return.

"Well, if you ever change your mind…"

I just shook my head. Even though this had been one of the hottest fucks I had ever indulged in, I knew that it was a one-time-only thing. I could not afford to fuck around with Tanya like that. She looked away as she finished rearranging her clothes, re-tying her shirt into some semblance of modesty. She smoothed her hair and turned to walk to the door. As she opened it, I heard her quiet dismissal.

"Goodbye, Emmett."

I couldn't answer. At least not in the way that she wanted me to. So I just stood silently by my desk as she passed through the door and pulled it quietly closed behind her. I was really fucking glad that we would be moving to our new offices in a few weeks when we opened our next club. I didn't think that I would ever be able to look at my desk or this office the same way again.

Exhaling in a frustrated huff, I shoved my hands into my pockets. I frowned when my fingers encountered something silky. Removing my hand from my pocket, I opened my fingers to find the thong that matched Tanya's silver corset. I squeezed my eyes shut and re-fisted my fingers tightly around the silky material.

With a sigh, I shoved the tiny pair of panties back into my pocket.

.

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**A/N:** Hope you guys enjoyed!

A couple of things...

1) I know this chapter wasn't an ExB chapter per-se, but it was necessary to give you some of Edward's background. Bella is pretty straight forward, and will tell you a lot of things. Edward... not so much. You see, Edward has a few hang-ups. While he enjoys certain... benefits... that his last name--his family connections--bring, he is equally irritated by the 'fame' associated with that name. He has also gotten incredibly tired of women who only want him b/c of said name/fame. And don't worry, you will hear more about _that_ night from EPOV...

2) I know this wasn't canon. Don't worry... Emmett was serious about this being a one-off. No more Tanya (but, hey, at least she isn't a bitch here). Well, let me rephrase... no more Tanya for Emmett. Once Rose enters the picture, he'll never notice anyone else anyways... But we will see more of Tanya; she is (unfortunately) necessary to the story. LOL

3) Again, be sure to go check out the Bridal Style smut-shot contest page: http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/u/2122305/bridalstyle

4) I also have a O/S entered in the Geekward Shuffle Challenge. If you're looking for something a little different (Bitchy Bella, Geeky Edward and all sorts of angsty, teenage, HS shit. No overt lemons, tho... just a little cherry-limeade), go check it out: http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/s/5548561/1/Take_A_Little_Trip

Voting for the GSC starts next week.

*

Thanks again for reading! What did you like? What didn't you like? Any requests for things that you would like to learn about Edward and Bella's night together (remember, it will be Edward telling you the details...)?

Reviews are a lot better than Emmett kicking Tanya to the curb...


	4. Chapter 4 The Ways of the Wind

**A/N: **Since I have plugged this as a story of lemon-shots that represent different stages in the development of relationships, I figured that each chapter needs to look at something a bit different. We've already seen part of the beginning of a new relationship and a one night stand. This one will be quite different. That's all I'm saying here about the lemon part…

Like the last chapter, we'll learn a little more about our favorite couple (or at least one half of our favorite couple) through the eyes of one of their friends.

On another note, thanks to all who read, reviewed and voted for the Bridal Style smut-shot contest. Although I did not place by judge's decision, one of my betas told me that my entry, _Illicit Behavior_, finished in the top three by popular vote. However, despite not being chosen by the judges, that little bit of smutty goodness provided me with my first fangirl *squee* moment when it was the only entry that Ninapolitan reviewed. Going beyond the initial *squee* and causing me to do a crazy happy dance at work, she rec'd the story for me last week on the PPSS! Check it out:

http://www(dot)pervpackssmutshack(dot)com/2009/12/illicit-behavior-yes-please(dot)html

OK… I digress… Back to the business at hand. Y'all don't really care about my moment of triumph… You want the smut. LOL. So, here you go…

Thanks to my awesome beta laraisawkward who constantly makes me laugh with her comments…

**Chapter 4 Playlist: **_Objection (Tango) _(Shakira), _Pump It_ (Black Eyed Peas), _Now and Zen_ (Quietman), _The Ways of the Wind_ (Pm Dawn), _In My Arms_ (Erasure)

**Disclaimer:** Twilight and all of its characters, dialog, situations, etc. belong to Stephanie Meyer. I have just stuck them in a bar where they can consume excessive amounts of alcohol and misbehave…

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*** * * * * Random Encounters * * * * ***

Holding on is like the ways of the wind  
Like holding on a nova star  
Holding on is like the ways of the wind  
The constant search for who you are

--_The_ _Ways of the Wind_, Pm Dawn

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Jacob

May 9, 2009

12am

Following Bella's…_exhibition_…on the dance floor, I had to excuse myself. And I didn't even think about Bella like that. I never had. But damn… I wasn't dead, and only a fucking dead man would have been able to ignore the show that she had just put on out there.

I spent a few minutes in the restroom with clenched fists and eyes squeezed shut, willing my unwanted and untimely erection to go away. Unfortunately, my body wasn't interested in listening to reason… When I finally returned to my post behind the bar, Alice had reclaimed the stool that Bella had vacated a little while earlier, which didn't help my situation. My pants were still uncomfortably tight, a fact that Alice immediately recognized. Her eyes narrowed accusingly.

"Problems, Jake?" she asked, tightly.

I shrugged nonchalantly—I wasn't going to talk about this shit with her—and her eyes narrowed further.

"I thought you didn't about Bella like _that_?" Her voice was petulant.

I looked away from Alice's accusing glare to peruse the dance floor. I frowned for several reasons. First, I was becoming uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation, especially since Alice seemed to be taking it quite personally. Second, Bella was nowhere in sight.

I turned back to Alice to find her shifting uncomfortably her seat. Her nose was squished in irritation.

I raised my eyebrows in a knowing quirk and stated, "I didn't think that you thought about Bella like _that_, either…"

Her startled eyes flashed to mine and her cheeks flushed guiltily. She scowled. I shrugged again, in a non-apology. What could I say… I could read women like a fucking book. Well, hell… let's be honest. Not just women. People. Working in a bar provided unique insight to the human psyche, and I saw more than I wanted to see on a nightly basis. Each day I was subjected to the dating and mating rituals of the people that patronized this establishment. As such, I had become intimately fucking familiar with all of the signs, the signals, and the scents of attraction.

As much as she was complaining about my body's reaction to Bella, I could sense that Alice was aroused as well. I smirked. But, I decided to give Alice a reprieve.

"Speaking of Bella, where did _little Miss Stripper_ take off to?" I asked, placing a bottle of beer on the counter in front of her.

Alice laughed in response to my question, the tension finally broken. She took a sip from the bottle.

"Oh. My. God. That was quite a show she put on, wasn't it? I've never seen Bella dance like that; she usually has a hard time staying upright." She laughed again, then sighed longingly before answering my question.

"I think she went home with the Sex God," she stated casually.

I choked on the drink I had just raised to my lips. "What?" I practically yelled.

Alice rolled her eyes. "She left with the guy she was dancing with." It was stated matter-of-factly, but her eyes quickly pinched in concern, and she looked at me with a small frown. "There was something familiar about him… Have you seen him here before?"

I shook my head to let her know that I had no clue who she was talking about. I hadn't seen who Bella had been dancing with; I'd had to excuse myself from the bar right after she shoved her hands down her pants. It had appeared that she was actually _touching_ herself… Again, only a fucking dead man…

Alice continued nervously. "He looked alright. Oh, fuck… who am I kidding? He looked more than alright. The dude was fucking hot. God! Bella is so lucky." She sighed. "What I wouldn't give… Anyways, it's about time that Bella finally got some. That girl is strung tighter than a… well, I don't really know, but she's definitely got an unresolved sexual tension thing going on."

She paused to catch her breath, and then continued with her erratic musing. "I wonder how long it's been for her?"

I choked on my beverage once again at Alice's words. I looked at her incredulously. Didn't she fucking know?

"Um… Alice…"

She looked at me, eyebrows raised.

"Don't you know Bella by now?" I asked. "I mean, how long have you lived with her?"

"A little over a year. Why?"

I looked at her intently. "In all that time, has Bella ever gone home with someone or brought a guy home with her?"

Alice appeared to be contemplating my question for a few moments. The more time passed, the deeper the frown became on her forehead. "Well, now that you mention it… No." She looked a bit startled by her answer.

I just looked at her pointedly.

"What?" she finally snapped.

I stepped closer to the bar, leaning over the counter. I glanced around before asking, "Don't you talk about sex and stuff? Relationships? Isn't that what girls usually do?"

A dull flush colored Alice's cheeks. She looked down at the counter and began fiddling with the cocktail napkin resting underneath her beer bottle. If I hadn't been watching her closely, I would have missed her quietly whispered, "No."

I continued to watch her closely, and eventually she raised her head to meet my eyes. At my inquiring look, she sighed and elaborated. "I don't like talking about my past. You know that, Jake. Bella learned that pretty quickly as well when I refused to answer any of her initial questions. She never asks about personal stuff anymore and I return the favor—though she knows that I'll listen if she wants to talk. Besides, I get the feeling that she doesn't really like talking about her past, either…" he voice trailed off as she registered my incredulous look; my mouth had dropped open.

"Alice… Bella doesn't talk about her sexual history, not because she doesn't like talking about it with you, but because she… _Doesn't. Fucking. Have. One._" I enunciated each word carefully.

It was Alice's turn to choke on her beer. I snorted as the alcohol spewed forth from her mouth.

"What?" she finally managed to choke out between coughs. "I know she's had boyfriends because she mentioned some creep named Mike—"

I cut her off. "Boyfriends don't necessarily equate to having sex, Alice, or vice versa. You should be really fucking aware of that by now." My words were biting, and her cheeks flushed brightly at the glaringly obvious double meaning to my words. But as the true implication of my words set in, her jaw dropped in surprise.

"You mean Bella's never…" her voice trailed off, her wide eyes asking the rest of the question.

I shook my head.

"Oh. My. God. Holy shit." Alice was completely flustered. "But what about her… _toys_?" She whispered the last word after glancing around to make sure that our conversation was not overheard.

Now it was my turn to look confused. "Huh?"

"You know…" she scooted her stool closer to the bar and leaned over the counter conspiratorially before continuing, "...the contents of her 'pleasure chest'? I know that she has at least three vibrators in there. And one of them is really fancy. It has certain special features that—"

I threw my hands in the air in front of her face and took a hasty step away from the counter in order to halt this line of conversation. I didn't need to know this shit about my best friend. What she did in her bedroom—by herself—was her own fucking business. I snorted at the irony of that thought, but shook my head in an attempt to dispel the images that Alice had planted there. Unfortunately, they didn't want to budge.

When I finally turned my attention back to Alice, she was lost in thought, muttering to herself, "I had no clue. How did I not fucking know that she was a virgin? And I practically pushed her out the door with the sex god…" She smacked her own forehead and groaned. "Oh shit… I knew she was over her head with that one, but I didn't realize how much. Jesus. I wish I had gotten that lucky on my first time; at least he looked like he would make it memorable. Fuck. I wonder if she took him back to our apartment?"

I chuckled at her incessant rambling. "Why don't you hang out here with me tonight, sunshine? I get off at three, and I'll take you home. I can sleep on the couch, if necessary?"

I winked at her, and though Alice smiled, it was a bit forced. Something was up with her tonight, I could tell. She was jittery, anxious, and overly-talkative, even for Alice. But I was concerned about Bella. I wanted to be there for her, just in case she needed me; she had been drinking tonight—quite heavily—and the end results weren't always positive. After her last run-in with alcohol, I had spent the wee-hours of the morning sitting in the bathroom with Bella, holding her hair while she worshipped the porcelain god. Definitely not pretty. Add that to an important first… Yeah, she'd probably need all the friends she could fucking get in the morning.

At that moment, someone yelled for a bartender, so I left Alice to her beer and returned to work. I spent the next half-hour serving drinks to those who needed them, but I kept an eye on Alice; she still looked shell-shocked by all that she had learned and appeared to be talking to herself—disparagingly—the entire time. She sent me a distracted smile when I replaced her empty bottle with a full one. But she took only one sip before dropping the bottle to the counter and plunging her hand into her back pocket. It took me a minute to realize that she had her phone out and was texting someone. I assumed it was Bella.

"What are you doing?" I asked harshly.

"Texting Bella," she confirmed.

I rolled my eyes and looked at her pointedly. "Alice, somehow I don't think that Bella wants to be disturbed right now…"

"I know," she sighed. "But just in case…"

She continued with her furious typing. When the message was complete, she hit _send_ and closed the phone. But she was agitated, and she constantly looked to her phone as if she was willing it to fucking ring. Fifteen minutes later, with no response from Bella, she opened it again. Tired of her nervous fidgeting, and worried that she was getting ready to send Bella another text, I plucked the phone from her fingers and slipped it into my pocket.

"Hey!" she chastised with a scowl.

I quickly replaced the phone with yet another drink. A strong mixed drink this time. I figured that she could use it. This theory was proven correct when she picked it up and quickly downed it, once again shuddering as the alcohol slid down her throat. I immediately mixed her another drink, although this one was not quite so strong. Just as I set the glass in front of her, my pocket—the one with Alice's phone—buzzed. I removed the phone and placed it on the counter next to her drink. The message light was flashing. Alice snatched the phone off the counter and opened it eagerly.

"It's from Bella," she announced before pressing the necessary buttons to retrieve the message. She smiled initially as she read the message, but then her face became pensive.

"What'd she say?" I finally asked when it didn't appear that she would tell me.

Alice sent me a meaningful look.

"Don't wait up."

As the anxiety faded from Alice's demeanor, so did her energy. She seemed to deflate in front of me—her arms sank to the bar and her head fell to rest upon them. After glancing briefly at her watch, she looked up at me sheepishly with drooping eyes. The excitement and alcohol were beginning to take their toll, and now that Bella was gone…

"I don't think I can make it 'til three, Jake," she told me in a tired, and somewhat sad, voice.

I glanced at my own watch. It was one-thirty in the morning and I still had at least two hours of work left. I looked back to Alice, and found that her eyes were now closed. No, she wouldn't fucking make it that long. And I couldn't have her passed out at the bar; not only was it not a smart move for her, but it would draw undue negative attention from management. I hadn't seen much of either Emmett or Edward tonight—just that one time when Emmett had checked in at the bar, and that had been several hours ago—so it was likely only a matter of time before one of them made another set of rounds. Picking up the phone behind the bar, I dialed the number of the cab company whose information card permanently resided on the wall.

I shouted at Paul, the other bartender on duty tonight, telling him that I was taking five and gesturing towards Alice to let him know of my intentions. He nodded. I stepped out from behind the bar and walked to her side. Laying a hand on her shoulder, I shook gently. She raised her head and turned her sleepy eyes in my direction.

"Rise and shine, sunshine," I told her with a tender smile, at the same time providing leverage against her arm in an attempt to help her stand. "Let's find you a cab, okay?"

She nodded and leaned against me as I led her towards the front door. She perked up a bit when we stepped outside into the fresh air. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long. As soon as the cab pulled up to the corner, I handed her into the backseat and gave her address to the driver. I bumped the top of the cab with my fist as it pulled away from the curb. Once the twinkling taillights were gone from my line of sight, I turned and walked back into the bar.

~/~

Two-and-a-half hours later, I found myself standing at Alice and Bella's door. I ran my hands through my short-cropped, spiky hair in agitation. I had convinced myself earlier that I was doing this, coming here tonight, for Bella. But standing here, hesitating to knock on the door, I knew that I had been lying to myself. This wasn't about Bella. It never had been. It was about something else entirely. Someone else.

I knocked.

The door flew open immediately. It was as if she had been standing there, just waiting for me to arrive. I was a bit surprised, considering how tired she had been when I had put her in that cab earlier. But the expression on her face was awake, alert. _Aware_. Before I could even step through the doorway, she launched herself at me, a flurry of lithe limbs wrapping themselves tightly around me. One of my arms curled under her backside, pulling her hips closer so they were pressed tightly against my own. The other wrapped itself around her back, crushing her chest to mine. I stepped through the door, kicking it firmly shut.

Her hands plunged into my hair, and she pulled my face to hers roughly. I could taste the desperation on her lips when they clashed with mine. The tiny body in my arms writhed against me with undisguised sexual longing as I stumbled towards the couch, her whimpers and moans driving me mad. I finally reached my destination and tipped her backwards. Bracing myself with my forearms, I lowered myself to lie on top of her. Her legs tightened around my waist, and she raised her hips to press tightly against my aching groin. She nipped eagerly at my lips with sharp teeth, and I groaned in anticipation.

Although I was worried about Bella, I was really fucking glad she wasn't home tonight. I didn't know what she would think about this. Hell, I wasn't even sure that I wanted Bella to know about this.

Oh yes… I had a secret. It just wasn't the one that Bella thought she was keeping for me. It was the one that I was keeping from her. And that secret now had her tongue rammed down my throat and was trying to shove her hand down my pants.

Alice and I had been… well… I guess you could call it _friends with benefits_ for almost six months now. We didn't fuck—that was a line that I was unwilling to cross, especially with her history; we just messed around. Neither of us was looking for anything permanent as we had both been too badly damaged in our previous relationships to want to deal with that shit. We were just looking for some emotional comfort and an occasional physical release.

Bella didn't know about us. Neither of us wanted to tell her. We didn't think she would understand. But somehow, this arrangement worked for us. By setting boundaries, we did our best to assure that our friendship would not be completely ruined when this inevitably ended. Because it would end. We both knew it. It was just a matter of time before it became either too much or not enough.

I returned my focus to the girl in my arms. Alice had never been this…_aggressive_… in the past, and I was worried about the reason. Plus, she had just seemed a bit off—nervous, anxious—all night. I raised my head, breaking the frantic kiss, and reached down to stop her still-searching hand. She grunted in return.

"Alice…" I called gently. Her frenzied movements stilled, and she looked up to meet my concerned gaze with glazed eyes. I frowned at their lack of focus. Tugging both of her hands up above her head, I lightly stroked her wrists. Her eyes drifted shut again as she whimpered in longing and wiggled purposefully beneath me. I hissed at the contact of her hips against the straining bulge behind the zipper of my jeans, and I pressed my hips down against hers. My action satisfied the need to halt her teasing movements and hold her still, but in turn, it brought her scorching heat into closer contact with my throbbing erection. I groaned again.

Lifting my upper body slightly, but keeping my lower body pressed tightly to her to hold her in place, I ran my fingers down the inside of her arms. My eyes watched as I lightly brushed the outside of one of her breasts. She had changed since coming home and was now clad only in a tiny tank-top and a pair of loose-fitting, boxer-type pajama shorts. The rigid nipples that graced her full breasts were clearly visible beneath the flimsy material. Unable to resist, I brushed a hand lightly across one of the pebbled tips. Her back arched and she moaned in response.

At her silent invitation, I slid my hand down her stomach, pressing gently and eliciting another anticipatory moan. Her stomach muscles clenched as my hand reached the hem of her shirt and slipped beneath to feather against her silky smooth skin. Grabbing the bottom, I yanked the top off in one swift motion, exposing her perfect breasts. When I had first met her, I guessed that Alice had implants because they were so perfectly round and full. But they were real. And just as Teri Hatcher had proclaimed in that old episode of Seinfeld, they were spectacular. I dropped her tiny shirt to the floor and lowered my mouth to one pouting nipple. Her breath hissed through her teeth as my warm lips surrounded the hard tip, and her hands resettled in my hair, pulling my mouth more tightly against her skin.

I took my time, savoring the feel of first one breast, then the other, in my hands and in my mouth. Her breathless pants and restless fingers became more frenzied as my attention became more focused and purposeful; my lips and fingers tugged gently at her aroused flesh, and my tongue soothed any rough ministrations. She moaned in response. After a few moments, I raised my head and captured her lips with my own. An intense heat emanated from her core as she ground her hips against me, and I couldn't help but push against her in return. She grunted and groaned, the sounds matching the rhythmic thrusts of her hips.

In the past, this kind of contact had been enough to satisfy Alice's desires—she usually came pretty quickly. Tonight, however, there was a desperation to each of her actions that I didn't understand, and she couldn't seem to find the friction she needed to climax. Her kisses were rougher, deeper. Her hands roved incessantly, alternating between gripping my hair roughly and scratching frantically up and down my sides beneath my shirt. The breath escaped my lungs in a huff as her fingers once again delved beneath the waistband of my jeans. My hand captured her wrist, halting her questing fingers.

"Alice…" I warned.

"Jake... _Please_…" her voice begged, although I didn't exactly know what she was begging for—more, less, harder, softer?

"What do you want, baby?" I asked, my voice now tinged with desperation as well.

"More. I need _more_," she practically sobbed.

I released her wrist and pushed my hand between our bodies to cup her sex, groaning at the damp heat that I encountered there—her shorts were soaked through. Her breath caught at the contact. I slowly stroked a finger up the inseam of the fuzzy fabric and her hips bucked violently against my hand. She cried out.

"Like this?" I asked, stroking my fingers between her legs again.

"Fuck! _Yes_…" she hissed, thrusting her hips in opposition to the motions of my fingers. She groaned when I pressed firmly against her clit, and she clasped her legs tightly around my waist trying to increase the pressure.

I began flicking the tiny bundle of nerves, and the motion of her hips increased to match my pace. She huffed in time to my stroking and her head thrashed wildly against the couch. She was fighting, but I couldn't tell if she was fighting me or herself.

"C'mon, baby… just let go," I cajoled her, changing my pace, increasing the length and pressure of my strokes to what I knew she liked.

She grunted in response, fisting her hands against the fabric of the couch, and pushed roughly against my hand. She gasped with each flick of my fingers against her clit.

"I can't…" she whined. "I still need more…"

"Alice…" My voice was a strangled whisper. We were nearing the point of no return here, pushing the boundaries I had set for our emotional protection. Getting dangerously close to the line I was not fucking ready to cross. My fingers slowed in their motions, and she whimpered in frustration.

"_Please_, Jake," she begged again. "Just do it. Fuck the rules. I _need_ this."

The desperation in her voice broke me. I had never touched Alice like that in all of the times we had fucked around, and I was nervous. Slowly—so very fucking slowly—I slid my hand to the edge of her shorts and inched my fingers underneath the hem. She shifted her hips against my suddenly stationary fingers, pushing them towards the tender skin she so desperately wanted me to touch. My breath caught when she bucked her hips a second time, causing my fingers to slide into the wetness at the juncture of her thighs. We groaned in unison as I slowly slid the tips of my fingers up and down her wet folds. Her lips were smooth and slick, and my fingers moved easily against their slippery surface. I dragged my fingers upwards to press firmly against her clit, registering surprise when my palm came to rest upon skin that was completely bare. For some reason, that little tidbit of knowledge just about fucking killed me.

"Oh, fuck…" I groaned against her neck, my palm rocking against her naked mound. She grunted in response.

My fingers began tracing rhythmic circles against her sensitive little nub and she bucked against me, searching for the friction that she so desired. Her entire body was trembling, the legs still clasped tightly around my waist shaking with the force of her tension. I flattened my fingers against her, providing pressure with three fingers simultaneously. I pushed down into the wetness, and using long, deliberate strokes, I rubbed from the base of her slick entrance all the way to the top of her cleft, pausing against her clit on each upstroke.

Her hips began thrusting in opposition to my stroking fingers again, rising and falling in search of her elusive orgasm. I leaned down to tease the shell of her ear with my lips and tongue. When her pace began to speed up, I whispered encouraging words into her ear.

"That's it, baby. Let it go."

She grunted and increased her pace further, but still did not release. It had never before taken this much effort, and it was obvious that she was looking for…_something_… I just didn't know what. I was getting irritated with her recalcitrant body, with my obvious lack of control over it.

My voice was harsh, demanding, when I spoke again. "_Alice_. Look at me."

She answered the command in my voice by opening her eyes. They were liquid, desperate, dilated fully. Her hips stalled in their motions as she stared at me; I could feel the sexual command glittering in my own as I resolutely met her gaze.

"You _are_ gonna come for me. And since your body doesn't seem to want to comply, I'm gonna tell you when. Okay?"

Her mouth dropped open in a surprised 'O'; I had never spoken to her like this before—because of her past history, I had always allowed her to control our… _trysts_. My fingers were still pressed gently against her sensitive flesh, and I felt a surge of moisture at my commanding words.

"Did you hear me, Alice?" I asked at the same time as I aligned a finger against her slick entrance.

"_Yes_…" she moaned, shifting her hips slightly so that the tip of my finger slipped inside.

She bucked her hips again, taking my finger in further and whimpered in frustrated longing. My already hard dick throbbed painfully as I felt her warm, wet walls contracting around my finger. I groaned in response. But I didn't move.

"Do it, Jake," she ordered. Her eyes pleaded with me.

"You know I can't, Alice. I won't do that to you. Not after what you told me and what we agreed to that first night. If you want this, you're gonna have to do it. Control it."

As much as I wanted to shove my fingers into her sopping-wet pussy and finger-fuck the hell out of her, I would not take _that_ control away from her. My eyes bored into her. "But remember… your orgasm is mine. You control the action, but I control the results."

She nodded.

My finger was poised at her entrance; all she had to do was lift her hips. I held my breath, waiting for her to move. I was surprised when she did because it wasn't a move that involved my fingers sinking into the tight, hot, wet depths of her nether-regions. No, instead I felt the button pop on my jeans and heard the sound of the zipper on my fly being lowered.

"Alice?"

"Shhh… Let me do this. I've wanted to for a while now."

I wanted to tell her to stop, but my aching cock had other ideas, straining towards her tentatively exploring fingers. And since my hand was now buried in her shorts, our previous rules had obviously flown out the fucking window. I shut my eyes and groaned as her tiny hand snaked behind my boxers to settle around my rigid length. When she squeezed gently, my hips involuntarily bucked into her hand. She sighed.

She squeezed again, adding a small downward stroke and I thrust forward in response. I was so focused on the sensation of her small hand pumping my cock that I wasn't even aware that she had moved her hips until I felt her naked mound grind into the heel of my hand. I almost exploded at the feel of her tight, wet heat completely enveloping my finger, and I gritted my teeth against the onslaught of sensations.

We began an awkward dance of hip thrusts and hand pumps, but there was not a lot of space for manipulation between our bodies. Especially with me lying on top of her. Without pulling my hand from her shorts, I maneuvered us to our sides and hitched her leg up over my hip. The new angle allowed for deeper penetration, and she moaned when she tilted her hips and pulled my fingers in deeper. Her hand pumped faster and harder in response.

I kept my fingers still, as I had promised, allowing her to control the pace and degree of penetration. But when her movements sped up and her accompanying grunts and groans indicated she was finally getting close, I decided it was time to regain some control. I moved my thumb to her clit, brushing it gently, and her hips bucked forward in an uncontrolled jerk. I pressed slightly, providing pressure as she bucked wildly against my hand. When I felt her body begin to tremble again, I spoke.

"Remember what I told you, Alice. Not until I say so."

Her eyes snapped back open to meet mine and her body stilled. She nodded. And then she started pumping my cock again, this time in longer, stronger strokes. Her hips remained still, so I began teasing her clit again with my thumb. Her eyes dilated and she began gnawing on her lower lip as I rubbed deliberate circles around her clit, the timing of my motions synched perfectly with her small thrusting hand. The more I teased her, the more she teased me back, playing with the sensitive skin on the underside of my cock and spreading around the slick moisture that had seeped from the tip.

Her breathing became choppy and strangled, and I could feel her inner walls begin to clench gently against my fingers. I pressed my thumb more firmly against her clit and she gasped, her eyes closing in concentration. I smiled.

"Are you ready, baby?" I asked.

Her eyes opened and locked on mine. She pulled her hand from my pants and raised it to her mouth, where she licked her palm several times. She then shoved it back into my pants, the slickness of her damp palm easily sliding up and down over my dick. I couldn't control the strangled curse that emerged from my lips.

"_Fuuuck_!"

Within seconds we were both right there. Her hips started moving again, grinding wildly against my fingers while my thumb teased her clit. In turn, I bucked my hips into her hand. When I felt the muscles begin to clench in my abdomen, I leaned in to capture her lips with mine. It was once again a desperate clashing of mouths, and neither of us could get enough. I pulled back after a second to look her in the eyes and spoke one word.

"Now."

I pressed my thumb firmly against her clit and her body shattered around my fingers. Her desperate moan sent me over the edge, and I spilled into her hand with one last thrust of my hips. When her body finally stopped pulsing, I pulled my hand from her shorts and wrapped my arm around her, pulling her into my chest. I closed my eyes and buried my nose in her hair.

When we both finally came down from our intense orgasms, I leaned back to look at her face; her eyes were squeezed tightly shut. A tear dangled on the tip of her eyelash. As I watched, it dropped to her skin and slid down the contour of her cheek. Frowning, I lifted my hand to capture that errant drop of moisture and lifted it to my lips.

"Alice?" I called her name, and her eyes opened warily to meet mine. This time, they were panic-filled and she couldn't hide her tears; they spilled over and began to fall freely down her face. Once the tears started, they didn't stop. I wiped furiously at the wet trails that tracked across her cheeks.

"Alice? What the fuck is wrong?"

She just shook her head and wrapped her arms tightly around my shoulders, sobbing into my neck. All I could do was hold her while she rode out the wave of tears. So I held her and stroked her hair, all the while worrying. The sky had begun to lighten when she finally released my shoulders and relaxed back onto the couch. She sighed heavily.

"I don't think I can do this anymore, Jake," she finally stated in a small voice.

I had been wondering if that was what was wrong. I had felt the desperation in each of her kisses, felt her fighting her own body, her own orgasm. It was as if she was trying to hold on and let go at the same time.

It had been completely fucking bittersweet.

"I know," I finally stated in a resigned voice. "I think I knew all night."

That was the only reason I had given in and crossed the proverbial line that I had established early on in our arrangement.

I felt another sob rip through her chest, and I looked imploringly at her.

"Alice, it's okay. Please, don't cry…" I raised a hand to brush at the annoying tears once again. "We knew it would come to this one day. I'll admit that I'm disappointed, but I'm not ready for a permanent relationship yet. I'm not ready to take this to the next level, to make that kind of commitment. That's why I couldn't…"

My statement trailed off, and I looked away briefly. When I returned my gaze to her face, she was looking at me intently. As I continued to stare at her, realization dawned.

"You are ready," I stated simply.

She nodded.

"After all this time, you're finally ready to put your past behind you and move beyond all of your hurts and fears. That's fucking huge." I paused and gently hugged her shoulders. I sighed before continuing, "You deserve to experience that with someone who is equally ready. Not someone who has the emotional hang-ups that I do. Not someone who is scared to trust again."

I stroked her cheek gently and bent to kiss the tip of her nose. "You're gonna find someone wonderful who can be all of that for you, Alice. I know it."

She nodded again, then closed her eyes on a shuddering sigh. I rolled her over, pulled her back against my chest, and wrapped my arm around her. Although she gripped my am tightly with her hand, she relaxed against my chest. Within moments, her breathing slowed, indicating she had fallen asleep. I closed my eyes and drifted off as well, savoring the feel of holding her in my arms one last time.

~/~

The slamming of the front door rudely awakened the both of us. A quick glance at my watch informed me that it was six-thirty in the morning. We had been asleep for an hour at most.

Alice quickly sat up, her eyes widening as she took in our disheveled appearance and her state of undress. She quickly retrieved her top from the floor and threw it on, then hesitantly looked over the back of the couch. Her breath caught at whatever met her eye. I knew that it had to be Bella, so I, too, sat up and chanced a quick glance of my own to assure that she was alright. My breath caught, too.

Bella looked even worse for the wear than we did. Her hair was a messy haystack on top of her head, and she was wearing an odd assortment of clothing: a men's button down that was tied off at her waist, a pair of what appeared to be flannel boxers, and high-heeled stilettos. Her jeans were draped over her arm. But it was the look on her face that surprised me the most—an interesting combination of shock and awe.

Alice called out to her, but Bella either didn't hear her, or chose to ignore her, as she walked gingerly down the hallway to her room. I gathered it was the first assumption when Alice hopped up off the couch, yelling, "Bella!" Hand on her door, Bella turned around with a surprised look on her face at Alice's call. Her confused look deepened when she saw me sitting on the couch.

Alice hurried to her side, and the two girls carried on a whispered conversation. I didn't catch much from my position across the room, but Bella seemed alright, aside from the fact that she looked utterly exhausted. Their hands flashed animatedly while they conversed.

When Alice returned to my side, the sadness had disappeared from her eyes. They were twinkling again. I raised my eyebrows in a silent query as she sat down on the couch.

"She's fine. Hell, I'd say she's beyond fine. That girl looked like she got her brains fucked out. And not in a bad way, I might add. I have never seen her look like that before, satisfied and happy. And did you see how much trouble she was having walking?" Alice chortled.

She turned to face me with a smile, and I couldn't help but smile back. I was glad to see that Happy Alice was back; I hated feeling responsible for the needy, insecure, teary-eyed version I had comforted last night.

Alice's smile faded, and she looked at me intently. "She's going to Southern Ink this afternoon at four and wants us to go with her."

I frowned. "But she's already made an appointment for after graduation—"

Alice cut me off. "This is a new appointment. She called and made it on the way home."

She sent me a pointed look. A meaningful look. I guess that I just didn't understand the meaning. My frown deepened.

"But why would she… Oh. _Oh_! Wow. That good, huh?"

"I guess so. I didn't ask for specifics yet, but I think it's time to change my rules on talking. I _so_ need to get the details on this one!"

I chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"Does she have a design picked out already?" I asked.

"If I know Bella, I'm sure she does," Alice answered. "She probably picked it out years ago, just waiting for this moment."

This time I laughed out loud. A full belly-laugh. "Yeah, that sounds like Bella… She really should have been a Boy Scout. I swear, her personal motto must be 'Be Prepared'."

Alice and I laughed together for another moment, then I stood up.

"Well, now that I know Bella is alright, I guess I'll get out of your hair..." I turned to head to the door.

My hand had just gripped the doorknob when her voice spoke my name. I turned to find her standing right behind me, a soft look in her eyes.

"Thank you," she stated simply.

I frowned. "For what?"

She reached out and laid her hand on my arm. "For being you. For knowing me better than I know myself. For knowing what I needed, even when I didn't. For pushing, but not pushing, if that makes sense. But most importantly, for helping me face my fears." Her hand gripped my arm tightly and her eyes bored into mine. "If it wasn't for you, for your patience, I would still be the same scared girl I was when I moved in here last year. But because of you, I'm not. I'm not scared anymore."

With that final statement, she launched herself into my arms again. Just like last night, I found myself standing in her doorway, my body wrapped in Alice's lithe little limbs. Only this time, instead of a sense of desperation, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace. Although I didn't know if I really I deserved her praise, I was happy that I was able to help her move beyond her past. I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her close to my chest. Leaning down, I whispered brokenly into her ear.

"You're welcome, sunshine."

I kissed her forehead gently before lowering her back to the floor. Looking at her tenderly, I added a parting statement.

"You _will_ find him."

With one final smile in her direction, I opened the door and stepped through.

* * *

**A/N:** OK, so I know that this one was a bit different. And, damn… it was a hard one to write. I needed to capture both the desperation of Alice and Jake's emotions as well as the intensity of the sexual encounter, and it was so much more difficult than I anticipated. I hope I did this justice… Yes, this was essentially break up sex (or at least a break-up make out session). Admit it…we've all experienced this at some point in time. That last hurrah, knowing that the end was coming, but not able to stop. And somehow, knowing it's the last time makes it more intense, more raw. More fucking bittersweet.

Most guys (or at least the guys in my experience) would jump on that shit and take advantage. This Jake doesn't. Most of the versions of Jake that I have found in the FF world are selfish, self-serving characters. I wasn't really fond of Jake in the Saga, and wanted the opportunity to redeem him here. So… This version of Jake is more sensitive—in tuned—to the feelings of others, and even though Alice begs him, he knows that this is not what she really wants or needs (you'll learn more about why in future chapters). He chooses the high road, and I love him for it. Hopefully you guys will appreciate him for it, too. As planned, this is Jake's only narrative chapter, although you will see more of him in the future… I just needed him to give you a bit more background about Bella and to introduce you to Alice. Then set her free so that she can find Jasper…

Oh… just to settle your nerves, I have no more angsty lemons planned. This is supposed to be a feel-good story. So, while there will be some minor hiccoughs on the road to relationships, nothing this extreme is planned for future chapters.

One final note: I have 2 contest entries out there right now. Please check them out! Voting for both contests starts next week.

http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/u/2114494/Out_of_this_World_Contest

http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/~geekwardshufflechallenge


	5. Chapter 5 Butterfly

**A/N:** Finally, more ExB… Edward's perspective on 'the night'. Sorry for the wait. Hope it'll be worth it. Enjoy.

:)

Thanks to my beta laraisawkward who helps clean up my messes and continually makes me smile with her comments…

**Chapter 5 Playlist:** Closer (Ne-Yo) Wicked Garden (Stone Temple Pilots), Anyway You Choose to Give It (The Black Ghosts), Butterfly (Crazy Town), LoveStoned (Justin Timberlake), Chaos (Mute Math)

**Disclaimer:** Twilight and all of its characters, dialog, situations, etc. belong to Stephanie Meyer. I have just allowed them to satisfy their desires without fading to black. Thank God!

Now… Bring on the lemons (yes, that is lemons, plural!)…

* * *

* * * * * * * **Random Encounters** * * * * * * *

So sexy... almost evil, talkin' about butterflies in my head  
I used to think happy endings were only in the books I read  
But you made me feel alive when I was almost dead

Come my lady, you're my pretty baby,  
I'll make your legs shake  
You make me go crazy

--_Butterfly_, Crazy Town

* * *

Edward

May 9, 2009

9am

I awoke to the intoxicating smell of strawberries, woman, and sex. It surrounded me like a warm blanket, and I groaned in anticipation. My dick was rock-fucking-hard in spite of the fact that we had spent pretty much the entire night engaged in various acts of carnal pleasure. _Fuck me_. I swear that it had been the best sex of my life. I smiled wickedly as I recalled the sight of her watching me while my cock was in her mouth; her eyes had penetrated me, and although I had willingly shot my load, it felt as if she had sucked the life right out of me without my permission. And the way it felt when I had entered her the first time… She had been so fucking hot and tight, enveloping me like a glove. A perfect fit, like she had been made exclusively for me. I groaned again, remembering the way her body had convulsed almost instantly around me, and I knew that I had to have her again. And again. What we had shared last night was nowhere near enough… I reached over to the other side of the bed.

It was empty.

I frowned, at first disappointed. I didn't remember her leaving. Hell, I couldn't recall a fucking thing beyond my fourth explosive orgasm of the night. I shook my head in confusion. _Why couldn't I remember anything beyond that point?_ I laid in the bed, my arm outstretched across where she should have been lying, trying to recall what had happened last night and irritated by the fact that she wasn't there.

Then I realized I should feel relieved that I had dodged a major fucking bullet. I narrowed my eyes and shook my head; I had learned my lesson with women and relationships years ago. I didn't spend the night with women anymore. And never, under any circumstance, did I bring one back to my place. I was quite concerned by the fact that I had broken my number one rule, and wondered what the implications of that slip up might be... Although last night had felt… _different_… somehow, I knew that it wasn't. It couldn't be. Could it?

Suck, Fuck, and Duck.

_That is my M.O_, I reminded myself, none-to-gently.

Get in. Get off. Get out. As quickly as possible, and long before there was any chance of forming an attachment. Don't get me wrong… I fucking loved women. They were soft where I was hard, curvy where I was straight. They were warm and wet, and I loved fucking them senseless… But never again would I share my heart.

So why was there now a strange ache in the area where my heart used to reside?

I shook my head again, angrily this time. _Where the fuck had that thought come from?_

I rolled onto my back, throwing an arm over my eyes to shield them from the bright morning light. Unfortunately, my restless motion only served to stir up a new wave of smells from the sheets surrounding me. It was overwhelming. _She_ was overwhelming. Her scent was everywhere, and I couldn't fucking escape it. I yanked the pillow from under my head in order to cover my face and escape the intoxicating smell, but that only caused it to intensify…and now _I_ was mixed with it. I groaned as I recalled shoving the pillow beneath her hips before I took her from behind.

_Fuck!_

Without conscious command, my hand drifted down my still-naked body to grip my aching cock. I stroked lightly, surprised to find that it was seeping at the tip, already anticipating another release. I closed my eyes, my strokes becoming firmer and more urgent as I allowed myself to relive the previous evening.

It had all started with that damn tattoo…

_After we entered the club, I leaned back casually against the wall, trying to look alert. Despite what I had said to Emmett, I was exhausted and planned to take his advice and head out after making the first round through the club. But I couldn't admit that shit to him, so there I was, pretending to be interested in the goings-on. Looking interested, but not really paying attention. He hollered at me, using the shortened bastardization of my name, and I turned to look at him with a sigh. When he told me that he 'found one for me', I rolled my eyes and ripped him a good one. Yeah… that hadn't worked out very well the last time. But then he pointed out that fucking tattoo. Damn it to Hell. He fucking knew I had a soft spot—or maybe more aptly, a perpetual hard-on—for marked women. The design this particular girl had sported on her lower back was huge, indicating a lot of time and effort went into its creation. Ink that large required commitment. _

_To top it off, the girl was beautiful. Stunningly so. When her eyes met mine in the mirror… Well, let's just say that the attraction was more than fucking mutual. The tattoo alone was enough to garner my interest, but the message that her body was sending mine sealed the deal. Her mouth parted on an indrawn breath and her cheeks flushed immediately upon our initial eye-contact. I could feel the thrum of her arousal from all the way across the room. I knew in that moment that she __**would**__ be mine. _

_Holy Fuck… I couldn't remember the last time I had been so turned on from just a look. I was too fucking jaded for that googly-eyed, girly bullshit. But my eyes followed her relentlessly of their own accord, unable to get enough. Her friend distracted her momentarily, but she seemed as helpless against the pull of attraction as I was, and her gaze returned quickly to mine. This time, her nipples hardened and she worried at her bottom lip in longing. Then she shoved that damn beer bottle down her throat, and I was fucking hers. When she moved to the dance floor and started dancing, it was as if she was moving solely for me. I almost lost it when she shoved her hands down her pants—her eyes closed and that little pink tongue darted out to lick her lips and I knew that she had just touched herself while thinking of me. My body responded immediately. I had never needed someone the way I fucking needed her in that moment. Emmett whispered my name, and my feet were moving before he even told me to go._

_I felt the electric pull of her body as soon as I stepped on the dance floor. It called to me, and I answered wholeheartedly, wrapping my arms around her and grinding my erection into her backside with no prelude. We danced for a while, I think. I honestly can't remember much of what happened on the dance floor after I slipped my fingers beneath the waistband of her jeans, in imitation of her earlier actions; discovering that she was not wearing any fucking panties had completely displaced any coherent thoughts from my mind. _

_Somehow, and I have no fucking clue how, we ended up at my condo. I saw the surprised look on Demetri's face when we approached, but he covered that shit quickly and greeted us genially before opening the door and ushering us inside. In the two years that I had lived there, I had never brought a woman home with me. Hell, only a select group of people were permitted entrance to my home, and women in general were excluded from that group. But by that point, the head directing my actions and decisions resided in my pants, not on my shoulders, and I was more than willing to listen to whatever fucking decision he made. Gladly and eagerly. I was so desperate to possess her that I took her with my hand against the door as soon as we walked inside. She seemed worried that this would be over quickly. Usually, for me, it would be—that's the way I liked it. However, I assured her that we had all night. _

_For some unknown reason, I wanted this to last all night._

_After I got her off, she returned the favor. The way that her mouth and hands had worked my body was exquisite, her fingers and tongue teasing my skin. When she unzipped my pants to find that I, too, was going commando, the look on her face had been priceless—surprised, yet wild with desire. When she finally extricated my overly-excited cock from its denim confines, she fucking sighed. It was like she had been waiting for this, for me, me all of her life. The feel of her small, warm hand was heavenly, but then she sank to her knees and took me into her mouth, and life as I knew it fucking ended. I've stuck my dick into the orifices of more women than I care to remember, but I knew that after this, I would remember none of them. None of those experiences held a candle to the feelings coursing through my veins. Watching her watch me while she sucked me off was the hottest fucking thing I had ever seen or experienced. The look in her eyes and the feel of my dick hitting the back of her throat sent me over the edge…_

I cursed soundly as I exploded in time to the memory of my release into her mouth. My own hand was a poor substitute, yet my body still shook with the intensity of my orgasm. _Holy shit_. I don't think any solo act had ever been this intense or pleasurable, and I jerked my shit quite often.

It was because of her. And just like last night, I knew it wasn't over. It was far from over. I needed more.

_I needed more of her_.

I closed my eyes, inhaling the intoxicating scent that lingered on my pillow, and my cock responded admirably, instantly becoming rock-hard once again. My hand resumed its stroking as I allowed my mind to continue recalling the events of the previous evening, picking up where I had just left off.

_I experienced a moment of panic when she mentioned that she didn't know my name. Did she really not know who I was? If not, that was a first… I was used to women throwing themselves at me. Let me clarify… they threw themselves at Edward Cullen, grandson of Anthony Cullen, legendary Hollywood actor, entertainer, and talent agent. They didn't give a shit about Edward Cullen, the person; they were only interested in what I could give them—money, contracts, an entrée to the social elite. But when I searched her eyes, they were absent of any sort of deception. She really didn't fucking know. So I kept it simple and only gave her my first name. She introduced herself similarly._

_Bella. _

_Her name was Bella. It suited her perfectly; she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. _

_When she asked for my last name, I decided that for just one night I wanted no names, no complications. Just me and her. _

_Edward and Bella. _

_After a moment of awkward silence, she began to seem unsettled. But when she made an attempt to leave, I refused to let her go. I couldn't let her go; I needed more time, more touching, more feeling. More of her. _

_She had complained just a few minutes earlier about things being surreal, but for me it really was. Everything was completely fucked up, backwards from the way I usually operated. Normally, I couldn't get out the door fast enough. Yet, here I was, holding on, refusing to let her leave. The little voice inside my head was screaming, warning me that this was a huge fucking mistake, that I would regret this big-time in the morning, that I was opening myself up to trouble of epic proportions. But ignored it. The time for rational thinking was over. Hell, it had probably flown out the fucking window the second we made eye contact in the bar. So, I made some cheesy analogy about food and sex, and then informed her that I was planning to make her come over and over for the rest of the night. _

_Her eyes flashed eager acquiescence, so I stood and took her hand. At the contact, her breath caught and her nipples puckered. My body reacted in enthusiastic anticipation, my cock instantly hardening despite the fact that I had just come moments earlier. The need to touch her, feel her, be with her intensified. I pulled her to her feet and led her down the hall._

_My feet slowed as I approached my bedroom suite. I was entering uncharted territory, and in all honesty, I didn't fucking know how this would play out. There was a reason why I never brought women to my place, why I always insisted on going with them—so I could leave. Whenever the fuck I wanted. On my terms. That wasn't an option now. An odd feeling of contentment coursed through my veins, and I was really fucking glad that I didn't have an out. For the first time, I didn't want one. Yet, I found myself strangely nervous when I opened my bedroom door and ushered her inside._

_Just like when we had first entered my home, I slipped my arms around her from behind, pulling her body back into mine. But unlike before, when I had taken her hard and fast against the door, unable to resist the lure of her siren's call, this time I wanted to savor the experience. I lowered my lips to the back of her neck and sucked gently, my warm breath causing her to shiver. She moaned, her body melting into mine, her hands raising to funnel through my hair. She pressed her ass against me, wiggling slightly, and I thrust my hips against her, showing her my desire. Her hands tightened in my hair, pulling slightly, and my breath hissed through my teeth._

_Moving away from the door, we crossed the room in an intricate dance of intertwined limbs. Half-way across the room, a swath of light spilled from the bathroom, drawing her attention. Pulling away from me, she made a comment about wanting to freshen up. I had a feeling that she also wanted to make a phone call—her phone had rung a few minutes earlier when we were lying on the floor by the door. After pacing restlessly for a moment, I made my way across the room, to my bed, to wait for her. I hit the light on the small bedside table, immersing the room in a soft glow; I wanted to see her his time._

_I was sitting on the edge of my bed when she emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later. She was fingering her hair nervously—a rueful smile twitched across my lips when I realized I wasn't the only one with reservations—as her eyes searched the room for me. When our gazes met, her fidgeting halted and her eyes liquefied. She reached behind herself, and as she slowly sauntered across the room, her top loosened and fluttered to the floor. My breath caught as the soft light in the room illuminated the curves of her breasts. They bounced gently as she traversed the room, and my hands clenched into fists at my sides. My already throbbing cock practically jumped out of my pants, which were still undone from earlier._

_She came to a halt in front of me, reaching up to brush my shirt from my shoulders before she straddled my legs. Her hands feathered up my arms and came to rest on my shoulders. Our eyes locked, silently communicating. When I lifted my hands and placed them on her thighs, I felt her tremble. I slid them slowly up her body, molding the contours of her waist, her ribs, and finally her breasts, which fit perfectly in my palms. I lowered my eyes to watch my fingers as they teased a turgid tip. Her head fell forward with a small whimper, her fingers stroking the hair at the nape of my neck. I leaned forward, and her hands tugged my hair suddenly, holding it in a death grip as I captured one pert nipple with my lips. When my teeth gently grazed its pebbled peak, she yanked my head back, and I hissed in pleasurable pain. My eyes flashed to hers. They were wild and unfocused, yet smoldering with sexual intensity and need. _

"_Bella…" I whispered her name raggedly, yet reverently. To my own ears, it sounded like a fucking prayer on my lips._

_I stared at her intently, once again overwhelmed by the inexplicable fucking __**need**__ I had for her. With a groan, I slid my arms around her back and crushed her to my chest. Our lips met in a frantic kiss, all thoughts of slowly savoring her gone. She sucked roughly on my lower lip, and I plunged my tongue into her mouth, which elicited a throaty moan, although I didn't know from whom it emerged. She pushed on my shoulders, and I fell back onto the bed, pulling her with me, somehow managing to not break the kiss._

_While she nipped at my lips, her hands restlessly flittered across every inch of exposed skin they could reach. Electric awareness followed her fingertips, causing my skin to tingle. Making me feel fucking alive. When she reached my jeans, she tugged ineffectively at them. I rolled us over so I was on top and lifted my hips in an attempt to aid her. She grunted with her effort as she finally slid the stiff fabric over my hips. I lowered a hand to her waist and removed her jeans as well, then lowered myself to settle between her thighs. She fucking whimpered when our bodies finally touched, and she raised her hands to settle in my hair once again._

_My hands roamed reverently over her body, learning her curves, identifying the contrast between her softness and my hardness. Our kiss gentled, becoming less frantic—a more purposeful melding of mouths that stimulated and soothed at the same time. She writhed beneath me, her hips tilting in search of more intimate contact, and I chuckled at her impatience. I propped myself up on my elbows to look at her, my hands smoothing over the tendrils of hair that were spread around her face._

"_No need to hurry, love. We've got all night, remember?" I reminded her, repeating my words from earlier._

_Her eyes flashed with impatience, her hips still shifting restlessly. I pressed my pelvis against hers, and she gasped as the head my cock bumped against her clit. I pressed down further, and my shaft slid through the wetness that had pooled between her legs. She halted her restless motions and gnawed on her lower lip while staring intently into my eyes. _

_It would have been easy to take her right there. We both wanted it. Badly. But I wanted to draw this out; I needed this to last longer. So instead of pushing forward into her welcoming warmth, I slid backwards. My lips burned a trail from her mouth, to her breasts—where I lingered for a few moments—to her navel, and then lower. Her hips bucked wildly at the first touch of my tongue against her tender flesh. I pressed a hand against her stomach as my lips found her clit and sucked it gently but firmly. She threw her head back and cursed vehemently in response._

"_Shit!"_

_Opening my mouth, I trailed my tongue through her wet folds, and her hips jerked again. Another strangled curse escaped her lips, bringing a smile to my face. I sat up, causing her to whimper in frustration, but I quickly lowered my hand in order to brush my thumb across her clit. An indrawn breath hissed between her teeth. While my fingers teased, I slid to the edge of the bed and dropped to my knees on the floor. Once settled, I lowered my hands to grasp her calves, and tugged her forward gently, settling her thighs on my shoulders. I leaned forward to once again trail my tongue between her slick, swollen lips. Her back arched off the bed in pleasure and her hands fisted at her sides._

_Her hips began shifting again, in search of friction, so I placed a hand against her pelvis to hold her steady when my lips resettled on her clit. I sucked it into my mouth and teased it with the tip of my tongue. While I lavished attention upon the bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs with my mouth, I raised my free hand to run my fingers against the slippery skin of her feminine lips. I trailed concentric circles, each one getting smaller and smaller until the tips of my fingers were poised at her entrance. She moaned in anticipation, shifting her hips as much as my hold on them would allow. I released her pelvis as I slipped two fingers inside. She bucked her hips upwards and her warm, wet walls clenched around my fingers. I groaned against her clit as I stroked my fingers inside of her. _

_We quickly established a rhythm, her hips moving in opposition to my fingers. Her whimpers and moans increased in volume and intensity as our pace increased. Her back was arched and her clenched hands bumped against the outside of her legs, which were now squeezed tightly against my neck. When she started panting, I knew that she was close. I laved her clit with my tongue, pressing harder to provide more pressure, and pumped my fingers faster. She began cursing again, and I curled my fingers upward to tickle her sweet spot. ._

"_Oh fuck!" she screamed as her inner walls convulsed around my fingers and a surge of wetness pooled in my palm._

_Pulling my fingers from her depths, I lifted my head in order to watch her ride out the last waves of her orgasm. I raised my hand to wipe my mouth, and I couldn't resist the urge to smell her on my skin. I closed my eyes, savoring her scent. When I opened my eyes, she was staring at me. Her mouth parted as she took a breath and her tongue darted out to lick her lips before she emitted a breathy moan._

_While maintaining eye contact, I slowly rose to my feet. Tugging her legs, I repositioned her at the edge of the bed. I took a step closer, and she wrapped her legs around my hips. My hands rested at her knees, and I slid my palms up the smooth skin of her thighs to halt on her pelvis. I rubbed one of my thumbs against her clit, and she jerked in response, moaning softly. She was really fucking wet, and my finger automatically moved to trace the wetness that was seeping from her center. When I raised my eyes to look at her face, her eyes were desperate, silently begging me to fill her. The need to be with her returned with the force of a fucking Mack Truck. I took another small step forward, my cock automatically homing to her heat, and I rubbed against her wetness. Silently, I asked for her permission. _

_Without any warning, her legs clenched against me and she pulled me forward. Her back arched off the bed with a gasp as I slid home. She was incredibly fucking tight, not to mention scorching hot and sopping wet, and I clenched my teeth against the powerful need to release immediately. The look in her eyes was awestruck at our joining, and my heart clenched. In that moment, I felt connected to her—body and soul—in a way that I had never felt connected to anyone else. The need to posses her thoroughly was more than just overwhelming. It was a necessity. I pulled back slightly and thrust forward once more, burying myself to the hilt in her silken depths. Making her mine. She cried out as her body shattered around me, her inner walls sucking at me, somehow pulling me in even deeper, staking her claim on me as well. My cries joined hers as I released with her. I spilled into her, giving her everything I had—every part of my being. _

One again, I exploded into my hand. My head was buried in the pillow, my lip curled back as I immersed myself in her sweet, tangy scent. Strawberries, woman and sex. It was overpowering, irresistible. It completely surrounded me, and I groaned in remembrance as my body pulsed. If possible, this orgasm was even more intense than the last.

_What had this fucking witch done to me? _

I had no control over my body, over my responses to her. The claim she had staked last night was irrevocable, and even a simple fucking memory held a power over me unlike anything previous. I shook my head in confusion, completely fucking baffled. My cock was still throbbing with need for her.

_Fuck! _

And just like earlier, I knew it wasn't over yet. For while that first time with Bella was beyond anything I had ever experienced before, it had only gotten better as the night wore on. I rolled over, hoping that if I laid on top of my overly-insistent fucking erection it would go away. No such luck…

_After we recovered, I climbed up onto the bed and scooped her into my arms. We lay entwined, quietly touching for quite some time. I cradled her body close to mine, trailing my fingers absently over her arms and shoulders, needing the closeness. I had never needed that before. Holy shit! Edward Cullen was fucking cuddling. What the fuck had the world come to? _

_Eventually, she pulled away and rolled to her other side in order to look at me. There was caution—an odd shyness—in her eyes that I couldn't define. Somehow, I knew that I didn't like it. I wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery that had presented itself to me tonight, but that would involve certain conversation topics that I was not yet ready to breach. So I smiled tenderly at her and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. She sighed in response._

_When she pulled back, I knew that I needed to keep things light. For this one night, I wanted to forget who I was and simply enjoy spending time with a beautiful woman._

"_Tell me about them?" I asked._

_Her brow furrowed. "What?"_

"_Your tattoos. Is there a story behind them?"_

_I had discovered two other tattoos over the course of the night, one on her left foot, the other on her right ankle. I sat up, and she followed suit. I moved to the head of the bed, reclining against the headboard, and spread my legs so that she could settle between them. She leaned back against me, and my arms loosely circled her chest, just beneath her breasts. I couldn't resist the urge to brush my thumb against the soft, silky flesh. She hummed. Then she pulled up her left leg to point at the small blue butterfly tattoo that resided on the inside of her heel._

"_I got this one on my eighteenth birthday. I lived with my dad at the time and he was a bit of a control freak. Hell, he still is. This was my rebellion." She smiled at her recollections._

"_How long did it take for him to find it?"  
_

"_I don't know if he ever did. We lived in Washington state, in the city known for being the 'wettest place in the continental U.S.' So, I usually had shoes and socks on. That worked pretty well for this one, too." She lifted her other leg and pointed to the larger butterfly that graced the outside of her ankle. "I got it when I graduated high school."_

_When she sat up, I immediately felt her absence, and I was afraid that she would want to leave, but she just twisted her hair up on top of her head, exposing her neck. She cocked her head to the side, exposing another butterfly tattoo that I had missed earlier. This one resided behind her right ear. It was smaller, a side view—only one wing was detailed—but it, too, had blue shading. I reached out to trace it with my finger before I raised my hand to grab the twisted hair._

"_I got this one when I graduated college. I've managed to keep my hair down when I've seen my parents, so neither of then know about this one, either. As long as I keep my hair long, it shouldn't be a problem."_

"_Don't ever cut your fucking hair," I commanded._

_She snorted. "Why not?"_

"_I love it just like this. It's beautiful and long, and I can wrap it around my hand…" I demonstrated. Then I used it to pull her back against my chest, and she whimpered when my lips found the spot behind her ear where the tattoo was located. _

"_What about yours?" she asked as my lips became more insistent on her neck._

"_Which one?" I asked, reluctantly releasing her hair._

_She frowned. "I just saw the one on your ankle. Are there others?"_

_I nodded. I had two._

_Pointing to the Greek letters etched into my ankle, I stated "Fraternity. We all got them as soon as we were initiated." _

_Then I leaned forward and twisted slightly, exposing my upper back to her. I had a relatively large tattoo on my left shoulder. Her fingers traced the design reverently. _

"_What is it?" she asked._

"_Family crest. It was important to my grandfather. I got it right after he passed away three years ago." _

_Her hand dropped to my forearm, where she gripped gently. "He was important to you." It wasn't a question. _

_Again, I just nodded. We were getting into dangerous territory here. To distract her, I gently pushed her shoulders forward until the large tattoo on her back was visible. My hands dropped to brush against her large design._

"_And this one?"_

"_I got it right after I moved here, on my twenty-third birthday."_

"_How long did it take?"_

"_Two sessions, about eight hours. The butterflies were the easy part, even with the color. It was all the damn swirls that took forever and hurt like hell."_

"_Any significance?"_

"_Yeah," she said, but didn't immediately elaborate. Eventually she sighed. _

"_My metamorphosis," she finally stated._

_I hummed in question, my fingers still tracing the butterflies and swirls that spread across her whole lower back. She sighed._

"_All of them have meaning for me, commemorate important moments in my life. Hence the butterflies; you know, like breaking out of the cocoon. Leaving the old life behind, starting new. Going in as one thing, emerging as something else. __Changed__. The big one marks the biggest change of all. Me finally breaking away from my parents, my old life, and starting anew. For myself."_

_I nodded even though she wouldn't be able to see it. I could sympathize. When I moved to L.A.—initially only to go to school—I had broken ties with my parents. Broken free from the restrictions and restraints. When I went to work with my grandfather, it only made matters worse because I became a part of the Hollywood scene. The clubs were just the icing on the fucking cake in my strained relations with my parents. It didn't matter how successful they were, my parents would never see or appreciate my success. They didn't want to see it, because I voluntarily returned to the world from which they had fucking escaped._

_My hands were rubbing her lower back firmly, and she hummed in pleasure. I nudged her forward to lie on her stomach, and I straddled her thighs. I let my hands roam across the smooth expanse of her back, and she moaned lightly whenever my fingers encountered an area of tension. My fingers continually drifted down to brush her tattoo and the soft skin beneath it. The passes of my hands grew larger, encompassing her entire back—from the top of her shoulders all the way to her buttocks. Her hips shifted restlessly, and my dick twitched in response. Eventually, I moved my knees to rest on the bed between hers, effectively spreading her legs. _

_My hand dipped between her legs to slide through the wetness that had once again pooled there. She groaned and lifted her hips, providing better access. I slipped a finger into her, stoking gently and she rose to her hands and knees, pressing back against my hand. I pulled back and added second finger, then pushed back in. She grunted softly as she rocked backwards. As one hand pumped into her soaking wet pussy, my other hand moved to encircle my cock. I began stroking myself in time to the rhythm I had set for her, and all too soon we were both panting._

_I rose to my knees, releasing my cock and slipping my fingers from her. She whimpered at the loss of contact, and I quickly pulled her hips back, flush with mine. I reached around and pushed against my cock, rubbing it between her wet folds. With my free hand, I grabbed the pillows from the head of the bed and shoved them underneath her hips. Then I pulled back and aligned myself against her slick entrance. She moaned softly as she pushed backwards, forcing the tip of my cock inside of her._

"_Are you ready?" I asked._

"_Uh huh," she moaned._

_I moved my hand to her clit and began rubbing quick, firm circles as I pushed forward slightly. She moaned again, hips moving, trying to find friction, but with both my finger on her clit and the head of my cock only barely in her pussy, she couldn't find what she was looking for. She grunted and groaned as I teased her, playing with her clit and not fully penetrating her. Her legs began to tremble with suppressed tension. I pressed harder with my finger and her moans became louder, more urgent._

"_Oh, shit… Edward…"_

_The sound of my name rolling off her tongue in that desperate tone sent me over the edge. I thrust forward, burying myself in her heat. She cursed as she pushed her hips forcefully into mine. _

"_Fuck!"_

_I set a quick rhythm, pumping into her rapidly while my fingers continued with their ministrations. Her hips rocked against mine in perfect synchronization, slapping against me with tremendous force. She was shaking, her legs squeezing my own as she neared her orgasm. I sped up, needing to come with her._

"_Not yet, love," I begged as I felt her walls begin to contract. I was thrusting furiously._

"_I don't think I can hold it," she whined, pressing back against me as hard as she could, squeezing her legs painfully against mine. _

"_Edwaaaaard…." _

_Hearing her say my name provided the push I needed. The tell-tale pressure erupted in my stomach._

"_Oh shit! Fuck, yes. C'mon, love… Now!"_

_She slammed her hips backwards against mine and the walls of her pussy clamped down on my dick. Hard. She screamed._

"_Oh fuck! Yes. Ungh…"_

_I exploded with her, again spilling into her, giving all that I had, all that I was. To her._

_We collapsed in a pile on top of the pillows, my head buried in her hair._

For the third time that morning, I came in my own hand. I pumped my hips rapidly into my palm, riding out the waves of pleasure that coursed through my veins. I was panting wildly, groaning at the intensity of the orgasm, and biting the pillow that my face was buried in—wishing it was her neck, her hair. Like last night.

I rolled over a few minutes later, completely drained. I reached to the nightstand and grabbed a tissue, wiping my hand clean. A glance at the clock revealed that it was now eleven. I had spent the last two hours in a Bella-induced pleasure fog. I groaned and forced myself from the bed and into the bathroom so I could shower.

As I stepped under the spray, I recalled what happened next.

_When I could finally breathe again, I rolled off of her. She looked over her shoulder at me, smiling widely._

"_Wow."_

_I had to agree. That word about said it all. I had never experienced an orgasm of that intensity before. I smiled in return, chuckling a little. She rolled over, running a hand through her hair, and stretched a little before announcing that she needed to go to the restroom. As she rolled off the bed, she grimaced._

"_Ugh."_

"_What?" I asked._

_She fucking blushed and ducked her head. I chuckled again, but continued to look at her purposefully, demanding an answer._

"_It's running down my leg," she finally admitted in a soft voice as she turned towards the bathroom._

_That statement snapped me out of my orgasmic euphoria. Oh shit! Damn! Fuck! You've gotta be fucking kidding me. How the hell could I forget about fucking protection?_

"_Bella?"_

_She halted and turned back to look at me._

"_Um… Are you on birth control?" I finally asked sheepishly._

_She blushed even more, but she nodded in the affirmative before she ducked into the bathroom. _

At least _that_ particular memory was not conducive for rubbing one out. I groaned at my carelessness, at my mistake. _How the hell had I forgotten protection?!?_ It was another broken rule: I never fucked without wrapping my shit up first. Simply knowing that I had completely forgotten that fact was probably the best cock-block imaginable. Which was good; I didn't know if my dick could handle any more of that shit today anyways. I was sore as hell—two hours of masturbation had ensured that.

But as I thought about it, I knew that what I had shared last night with Bella was more than just a random fuck. A hell of a lot more. I felt it in my fucking gut. My heart pounded painfully and a dull ache filled my chest as the realization penetrated my soul. It had felt a lot more like making love, and that was something that I did not fucking do. Not anymore. Not since…

I shook my head, dispelling that thought, instead clinging to the lingering memories of last night. I sighed, stepping out of the shower and grabbing my towel. I felt my dick respond as the memory of the final time last night began to replay in my mind, but that particular incident deserved more time and effort than I had to give right now.

Therefore, I decided to save those memories until later.

When I could fully appreciate them.

I finally left my condo shortly after noon. It was a beautiful day, so I decided to walk to the club and try to get my thoughts in line. Try to forget about last night. But of course, that was impossible. As the doorman wished me a good day, I was reminded of our entrance into the building last night, of Demetri's surprise. As I walked down the street, following the reverse path of the course we had taken last night, I recalled the click of her heels on the pavement, the feel of her hand in mine. And when I got to the door that we had slipped out of last night, I was assaulted with all of the memories of our initial meeting. My body responded immediately.

_Fuck_… You'd think that I should have worked this out of my system by now. Between my night with Bella and my morning recollections of my night with Bella, I'd been sporting a perpetual hard-on for the better part of twelve fucking hours. I'd gotten a blow job, had sex three times and taken care of myself another three times this morning. Shouldn't that have been enough to fucking satisfy me? I pushed angrily against my insistent erection.

_Obviously not._

With a frustrated huff, I opened the door and entered the club. The first thing I noticed was the silence. Emmett's Jeep was parked out back, so I knew he was here. The absence of sound was disturbing because Emmett was always blasting some loud, shitty music. I usually found his choice in music to be uncouth; he tended to listen to hip-hop and rap, anything with loud, obnoxious bass and a prevalence of foul language. His office door was closed, which was also odd, but I took the opportunity to quietly slink down the hall to my own small office space. I wasn't ready to answer the questions he would inevitably ask. I was still too unsettled.

Several hours later, I was roused from my research of live acts by strange scraping noises and Emmett's loud muttering. I rose from my desk and opened my door to see Emmett pushing his desk out of his office into the hallway. I watched with raised eyebrows as he struggled with the large piece of furniture. When he cursed loudly, shaking his hand while hopping around—he had obviously smashed his finger in the doorjamb—I snorted in laughter. He looked up at the sound, a startled and somewhat guilty look on his face.

"How long have you been here?" he asked, suspiciously.

"A while." I shrugged. Nodding towards the desk, I asked, "Need a hand?"

He stared at me for a few seconds, like a deer in fucking headlights, before finally ducking his head to indicate that he would like some help. I sauntered over and grabbed the portion of the desk in the hallway. I pulled as he pushed, and together we maneuvered the desk from the room and down the hall.

We carried it outside and left it on the loading dock; a consignment store was coming to get it this afternoon. Once back in the building, I asked, "So, Em… What's with the desk?"

He shrugged. And he wouldn't meet my eyes when he answered evasively, "Time for a new one."

"Couldn't wait two months until we moved?" I prodded, eyebrows raised.

"No." His answer was stilted, and his tone suggested that he didn't appreciate my questions. He crossed his arms defensively and leaned against the wall of the hall.

I smirked. _When the fuck had that stopped me before?_

"Do you even have a new one, yet?"

He sighed in agitation before inclining his head towards the office. I looked inside and saw a large cardboard box leaning against the wall. It contained a cheap, contemporary-style desk and a rolling office chair, both of which needed to be assembled. An office store stamp was visible. I snorted.

"Really, Em? Office Depot? I think we can afford a decent desk. Unless there's something I need to be aware of?" I asked, sending him a questioning look.

He shook his head in the negative, but his eyes were pinched. We both walked into his office. I sat down on the couch, and Emmett began unpacking the box. Half-an-hour later, he had assembled his temporary desk and was seated behind it. He had remained silent while performing his task, and he still refused to meet my eyes. I heard him huff as he pushed angrily away from the desk. He stood and began pacing restlessly.

After a few minutes, I'd had enough. "You wanna tell me what the fuck is going on, Em?"

At my question, Emmett halted, and his head shot up. Another guilty look flashed across his face. My eyes narrowed in contemplation.

"You're all quiet—which is definitely _not_ like you—you're agitated and pacing. You just got rid of a perfectly good desk and replaced it with that cheap piece of shit." I nodded towards the new desk.

Emmett resumed his frantic pacing, mumbling under his breath. I raised my feet to the coffee table and crossed my arms behind my head, content to watch his restless movements. Waiting. He huffed a few times, but eventually flopped down next to me. He sat rigidly for a moment, then lowered his head to his hands with a groan.

"Dude, I fucked up." His words were so quietly spoken that I wasn't sure that I really heard him.

"Em?"

He groaned again and looked at me with tortured eyes. "Please don't hate me," he begged.

I was beginning to worry. "What'd you do?" I asked cautiously, bracing for the worst.

He groaned again and dropped his head back into his palms. "I couldn't fucking help it, Edward… She threw herself at me. She wasn't wearing any fucking panties," he spat out.

I was confused. All this nervousness was about a girl? How the hell did the desk fit into all of this?

"Huh?" was all I could get out.

Without looking at me, he blurted out, "I fucked her, Edward. Right there on my desk." His hands gestured wildly in the direction of the desk. "I _had_ to get rid of it; it's been mocking me all night. I couldn't have it there reminding me of what I had done. Of her."

Now I was completely fucking confused. As he…confessed—although what he was confessing to, I still had no fucking clue—his voice had increased in tempo and intensity. I didn't quite catch it all.

"Who'd you fuck?" I asked, trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together but failing. Miserably.

He sighed, his whole body slumping further into the soft cushions of the couch. He tilted his head back in imitation of my position, then rolled it to the side so that he was looking at me when he answered.

"Tanya."

I was floored, and I'm sure that my face must have reflected my astonishment because Emmett closed his eyes and raised his hands to cover his face again. I knew that Tanya was interested in Emmett; she had asked about him every time I had seen her in the past six months—which was quite frequently since she was interning at _Cullen Aspiring Talent, Inc_. But I didn't realize that she had taken it this far. I continued to stare at Emmett, not entirely sure what to say.

He groaned again at my silence. "I swear, Edward… I never meant for this to happen, but she's been chasing me for months and she cornered me in here last night after you left…" he shot me a dirty look, and I shrugged, a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. His scowl deepened. "How the fuck was I supposed to resist when she straddled my desk… Without. Any. Fucking. Panties?"

I laughed. I know it was wrong, especially considering the panicked look on Emmett's face, but I couldn't fucking help it. Tanya was tenacious; I had watched her systematically stalk guys over the past three years. In a lot of ways, she was like me… Poor Emmett! I chuckled again at the thought.

"Why are you laughing?" he asked in a paranoid voice, which only caused me to laugh more.

"You're not upset?" he asked, incredulous.

"What you and Tanya do on your own time is your own business. I take no sides." I threw my hands up in a sign of surrender, demonstrating my non-interference.

"But, dude… she's your cousin…"

I turned to look at him. I smiled and bumped his knee with my fist. "Emmett, Tanya and I are related, and I love her dearly, but you are my family."

As soon as the words passed my lips, I realized it was the truth. Emmett had been by my side through thick and thin for the past ten years, and I considered him far more than simply a friend. He was the closest thing to a brother that I had.

Relief washed over his face and his body finally relaxed.

I turned to look at him, a twinkle in my eye. "She pulled the no-panties trick, huh?" I asked, amused. He sighed and nodded. "Let me guess…" I made a face, like I was deep in thought. ".. short skirt, high heels, exposed bra?"

His eyes widened, and I laughed. "I'll take that as a yes." I chuckled again and shook my head. "I love my cousin, but she is _so_ predictable. I've seen her in 'seduction mode' before. Don't feel bad, Em. No guy with a pulse would have been able to resist what she was offering."

We sat in silence for a few minutes. "What now?" I finally asked.

Emmett took a deep breath. "I was clear up front that it couldn't go anywhere. She accepted that. Is that okay?"

"Again… what you and Tanya do or don't do is between you. I'm Switzerland in this scenario. I love you both, so I'll let you decide how to handle it."

We sat in companionable silence for a little while, both resting our heads on the couch and propping our feet on the coffee table. Eventually his head lolled to the side so he could look at me.

"So, what about you?" he finally asked.

For the moment, I was distracted. Emmett's admission concerning Tanya had thrown me for a loop, despite what I said to him. She was young, impressionable, and impetuous. Even though Emmett had been open and upfront with her, I figured that she would likely need a friend today. I vowed to call her when I left.

"What about me?" I asked, momentarily confused.

Emmett rolled his eyes and looked at me pointedly. "What happened last night?"

My heart lurched in my chest at his question. I felt my eyes pinch as I realized that _I_ was still trying to figure out what the fuck had happened last night. Most importantly, what had happened _to me_ last night.

"Uh oh… that's not a good look…" Emmett drawled, a smirk on his lips and in his voice.

I turned to look at him, and when our gazes met, his eyes widened. "Holy shit, man… what the fuck happened?"

I looked away, embarrassed by what they were likely revealing to him. I sat up, raising my hands to funnel through my hair. "Oh, God, Em… I can't begin to describe it. Best sex of my life, hands down."

He was surprisingly silent, so I turned back to him and found him smiling widely. He looked excited. For me. I couldn't help it—I smiled back, then groaned when I saw the pensive look sweep across his face.

"So… when are you seeing her again?" he asked.

I frowned. "I don't know."

"You want to see her again, though, don't you?"

I sighed resignedly. My answer, when it finally came was delivered in a frustrated whisper. "Yes."

"So, when you gonna call her? Dude, you'd better not wait too long. Girls don't like to be kept waiting…"

He was fucking lecturing me. Emmett McCarty, _King of the Casual Fuck_, was giving me advice on dating. I snorted. Then sighed. My restless hands found their way into my hair yet again.

"I can't."

"You can't what?" he asked, confused.

"I can't call her."

"Why not?" Now he looked a bit angry.

My hands fell to my lap and my chin dropped to my chest. I restlessly twisted my fingers. I felt his eyes boring into me and finally admitted, "I don't have her number."

I glanced up. Emmett looked confounded. "She didn't give it to you?"

"I didn't get a chance to ask, and she was gone when I woke up this morning."

Emmett now looked even more confused, if that was possible. "You didn't snoop? Look at her mail? Talk to her roommate? I know you're good with shit like that."

I just shook my head in the negative.

"Jesus, Edward, the girl leaves you alone in her apartment, and you don't take advantage of it? Are you losing your touch?" he half-teased.

"Not exactly," I hedged.

His eyes narrowed. "Why the fuck not, man? Perfect opportunity…"

I didn't answer for quite some time, and I again felt his questioning gaze boring into me. I took a deep breath. "I couldn't look for any info at her place because I wasn't at her place."

"Huh? What… You mean that you—"

I threw my hand up into his face, cutting him off. I just nodded in response to his unfinished question, and his eyes widened in disbelief. He sucked in a whistled breath.

"Why?" he asked, eyes again pinning me with their questions.

And _that_ was the crux of the matter… The all-important question to which I had no fucking answer.

I shoved my hands back into my hair, tugging roughly on the messy strands in utter frustration. "I don't fucking know, Em. I just did. One minute we were dancing, the next, we're sneaking out the back door and headed towards my condo. No thought process involved. I just wanted to get her home as quickly as possible."

As soon as the words left my mouth, I was struck by the truth of them. I had wanted to get her home—to _my_ home—as quickly as possible. I had wanted to see her lying naked on the bed. And not just any bed. No, I wanted her naked on _my_ bed. And I wanted her there again. I needed her there again. I was startled by my desire for a repeat performance, by my immediate and irrevocable attachment to her. _Bella_. In the past, I had always remained aloof and unaffected. I fucked—and I fucking enjoyed it, physically—but it was emotionless sex. Safe sex.

With Bella, it had been different. She was different than any other girl I had ever been with, and in turn, I was different—changed—just by being with her.

And I had no idea who she was or how to fucking find her.

I groaned again, in frustration. My hands fell to my lap, and I turned to Emmett. "I've gotta find her."

"So, Google her, do a white pages search."

"I can't."

"Why?"

I shoved my hand into my hair, once again tugging on the strands in frustration.

"Because I don't know her last name."

* * *

A/N: *sigh* Both changed , neither knowing exactly what they got themselves into until it was a bit too late. Hope you enjoyed!

OK... this is the last chapter in this vignette. Story picks up a few weeks in the future in a different club, _New Moon_, with Bella...

If you are enjoying this, please show me a little love... Reviews are better than Edward-induced orgasms. OK... maybe not, but they would be a close second, right?

:)

KL


	6. Chapter 6 Sweet Dreams

**A/N:** I am **so** sorry for the delay in the update… One of my contest entries won a prize, and I got roped into writing another multi-chapter fic (I'm up to three now! Argh!). I was trying to finish it up quick so that I could focus here, but things didn't work exactly as I planned…

*Sigh*

Ah… AsomBrosa tequila. What a special treat. I was introduced to this delicacy by my cousin-in-law; he brings a bottle every year at Christmas, and even my MIL made some dirty comments this past year! After you read this chapter (or hell, maybe before you read—so that you can get a mental picture of what is coming up), be sure to go check out their website: http://www(dot)asombrosotequila(dot)com/home(dot)html . They have tequila in all price/quality ranges, but all of the bottles share certain…um… features. Yeah… You'll see what I mean if you look them up!

Thanks to my beta laraisawkward who helps clean up my messes and continually makes me smile with her comments (or keeps me up way too late drunk g-chatting…yeah, it's her fault this didn't go up last night. joking. LOL)…

Anyways… back to the smut! We pick up with our story five weeks following the events of the first five chapters…

In case you're interested, I've linked images of Bella's tattoos on my profile page.

**Chapter 6 Playlist:** _Sweet Dreams_ (Beyonce); _Can't Get You Out of My Head_ (Kylie Minogue), _Overload_ (Sugababes); _I'm Burning Inside_ (Fuckpony)

Gotta love a band named Fuckpony, right? Ha!

**Disclaimer:** Twilight and all of its characters, dialog, situations, etc. belong to Stephanie Meyer. I'm just allowing them to go clubbing and get drunk—ie: act normal—and, oh yeah… actually have sex! Ha!

* * *

* * * * * * * **Random Encounters** * * * * * * *

I mention you when I say my prayers  
I wrap you around all of my thoughts  
Boy you're my temporary high  
I wish that when I wake up you're there  
To wrap your arms around me for real  
And tell me you'll stay by side

Clouds filled with stars cover the skies  
And I hope it rains, you're the perfect lullaby  
What kinda dream is this?

You could be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare  
Either way I don't wanna wake up from you

--_Sweet Dreams_, Beyonce

* * *

Bella

Saturday, June 13, 2009

7am

~/~

_I am wrapped securely in strong arms._

_My back is snuggled against his chest._

_Long, lean fingers trail soothingly, yet tantalizingly, up and down my arms._

_I shiver in response._

_Warmth surrounds me, embraces me._

_But I want more. _

_I roll over._

_My hand lifts to cup his cheek, and my thumb brushes across the rough stubble that adorns his face. _

_We stare, communicating silently._

_Butterflies erupt in my stomach solely from the unspoken message that his eyes convey._

_Anticipation. _

_Want._

_Absolute. _

_Fucking. _

_Need._

_My other hand roams across firm flesh, skin that burns with desire._

_Up his side, across his chest, over his shoulder._

_He shudders at my touch, and his eyes drift shut._

_My fingers slide into his silky, auburn hair. _

_I tug._

_He groans. _

_Trembling hands reverently stroke my fevered flesh, worshiping me. _

_Soft lips claim mine, gentle, yet urgent at the same time._

_I lose myself in the kiss, giving all that I have. _

_Giving myself to him._

_Pressure builds as our mouths and hands become more demanding._

_Tongues clash. _

_Fingers touch, tease._

_Taunt._

_I moan._

_I roll to my back, his delicious weight settling on top of me._

_Hips buck._

_Skin slides, providing friction._

_Soft sighs and gasping breaths fill the room._

_He guides my arms above my head, stretching me out completely underneath him._

_Our gazes crash, collide._

_Green eyes, dark—almost black—with desire, beg._

_I nod; I am begging, too. _

_Begging for his possession._

_Hands clasp._

_He surges forward, and I rise to meet him._

"_Yes."_

"_Oh, God, yes…"_

_We maintain eye-contact the entire time._

_A slow burn, driven by measured, purposeful movements, builds._

_Blazes._

_Consumes._

_Explodes._

_I cry out and he groans raggedly._

_I lose myself in the ecstasy._

_I lose myself in __**him**__._

_In this moment, I know…_

_Unconditionally and irrevocably._

_I am his._

~/~

I awoke with a gasp. My hands were pressed against my throbbing clit as my dream-induced orgasm ripped through my lower body.

"_Fuck_…" I hissed raggedly.

Clenching my legs together and pressing my hands even more firmly against my aching flesh, I rode out the waves of pleasure that only he could provide. Even in my fucking dreams. I held onto those dream-induced images as I bucked against my own hands. They were a poor substitute.

When I finally came down, I groaned again and buried my head in my pillows. It was way too fucking early to be awake on a Saturday morning, but that damn dream had ensured that I would not sleep any longer. I could never go back to sleep following one of _those_ dreams. Each time, I woke feeling loved, cherished, and fulfilled. Whole. But reality always set in quickly enough, leaving me feeling empty and alone.

I'd had this dream more times than I cared to remember over the past five weeks. Each time, it was exactly the same, like a video set to play on a constant fucking loop; every night I relived this particular encounter from _that_ night. I could recall all of the other events of that evening with perfect fucking clarity—the desperation in his eyes when we talked, the way his hands and mouth worshipped my body and brought me to climax, the feel of his body filling mine for the first time, the way it felt when he took me from behind. Every one of those experiences had been life-changing for me. Yet, it was never the earth shattering sexual explosions of the first two times that my subconscious chose to replay every night in my dreams. Instead, I always dreamed of the intensely emotional connection of that final sexual encounter.

It was as if my mind and body wanted to remind me…

_I was his_.

Not that I could forget that fact… And believe me, I'd tried. I'd tried my damnedest to forget Edward Cullen.

I groaned again in annoyance.

Yeah, I knew who he was now. A week after _that_ night, Alice had come home with a handful of tabloid magazines. I had given her a hard time, as I always did when she went on a gossip bender. But the look she had given me in return wasn't her usual _bite me_ look. It had been wary, worried, and I had instantly known something was wrong. When I'd asked what was up, she had simply tossed a glossy at me. I had about fucking died when my eyes fell to the open page and clashed with the enigmatic green gaze of my mysterious sex god. I had spent the rest of that afternoon reading anything I could find on him—magazines, newspapers, hell… I'd even Googled him. The more I had learned about his incredible life, the more insignificant I had felt.

I had slept with Edward fucking Cullen, talent agent and club owner, multi-millionaire and playboy extraordinaire. Worse, not only had I had given him my virginity, I had given him my heart.

Since that night, I had relived the experience, in all of its emotional fucking glory, over and over again in my dreams. And every morning when I woke up, I wished like hell that I could forget it.

But I couldn't.

I _would_ forever remember him—for so many reasons—but he didn't even know who I was. During our conversation, which even I had to admit had been quite limited, I'd never given him my last name. And I had slunk out of his condo in the early hours of the following morning without waking him or leaving any clue to my identity. My walk of shame had been conducted in a pair of boxers that I had filched from his drawer, and the shirt that I had stripped from his shoulders the previous evening. That shirt now resided in one of the drawers of my bedside table. I was wearing his boxers; they no longer smelled like him, but I slept in them every night, needing to be close to him somehow.

Fuck… I'd even had a physical reminder of our night together—of him—tattooed on my fucking body.

I groaned in self-loathing as I rolled to my back.

I could call him. I'd thought about it numerous times—I had gone so far as to get the address and phone number of his talent agency. But I always decided against it. I didn't know how these things worked; I'd never before had a one night stand… He had also been my first, so it was only natural that I would feel some sort of connection to him. But what if he hadn't felt the same way as I had? Besides, my Google search had revealed that Edward had an extensive sexual history; there were a horrifyingly large number of pictures of him with beautiful women. A plethora of beautiful women, and he was never photographed more than once with the same one. He appeared to be a total man-whore. What if I was just another fuck to him?

I groaned again in response to my pathetic thoughts, and then angrily threw an arm over my eyes to block out the early morning sun. I had one hell of a hangover, and I felt like shit. We had stayed up way too late last night, drinking way too much, and the bright light pouring through my bedroom window didn't help the throbbing in my head.

In our defense, we'd had a lot to celebrate. I had recently graduated, and Alice had just been promoted to a junior designer in the fashion house where she worked. Alice's old college roommate, Rosalie Hale—a model from New York—was also in town. She was attempting to break into Hollywood and had a movie audition early next week, but she had come out a few days early in order to visit Alice.

We had planned to take Rose out on the town, likely to our favorite club, but to be honest, I hadn't set a foot back in _Twilight_ since _that_ night. It was chicken-shit, I knew, but I couldn't help it. Just the thought of running into _him_ had my stomach in knots. Luckily our decision concerning what to do was made simpler when Rose had arrived on our doorstep last night bearing gifts: alcohol.

We started with the vodka. Rose had come prepared, so in honor of New York, we drank a whole bottle's worth of Cosmos. Any lingering thoughts of leaving the apartment flew out the window when she pulled out the _pièce de résistance_: a bottle of AsomBrosa Anejo tequila. Yeah… The damn bottle looked like a giant fucking phallus, which caused me to laugh uncontrollably. At that point, we were already pretty giggly; the more we drank, the funnier it became, and it wasn't long before I started demonstrating my extensive fellatio skills on the beautiful glass neck and head of the bottle. Then Rose told me that I needed to quit molesting the two hundred dollar bottle of liquor, which shut me up for a moment. But only for a moment… by that time we were all pretty blitzed, and the glass dildo-like tequila bottle had inspired us to start talking about real sex toys.

I burrowed my head into my pillow in mortification as I recalled the series of conversations that followed.

The more I drank, the more I talked, and the more outrageous my antics became. Before the evening was over, I had emptied the contents of my pleasure chest onto the living room floor. I had several relatively new personal pleasure devices, and Alice had been horrified by my most recent purchase: a very large, anatomically correct, flesh-toned silicone vibrator complete with squishy balls. When I turned it on and set it down on the coffee table, it vibrated itself all around, turning in wild circles. Rose and I collapsed in a fit of laughter at the look of disgusted shock on Alice's face.

Of course, the sex toy demonstration had inevitably led to a discussion of sex. And once that floodgate had been opened, I verbal vomited far more than I should have about my incredible night with Edward fucking Cullen. In my drunken state, I just may have divulged the information that he was very well endowed, hung slightly to the left, and possessed a delicious curve to his cock that allowed it to slide easily down my throat and hit all the right spots when he took me from behind.

Rose had snickered conspiratorially and sighed in longing, while Alice had stared at me, open-mouthed, throughout that particular discussion. The look of shock on her face made me realize that in the year that Alice and I had lived together, we had never once discussed sex. Of course, my lack of a sexual history—in the true sense of the word—likely contributed to that fact. But still… didn't girls usually talk about shit like that?

I hadn't had anyone to talk to about those types of situations and scenarios in years, although I must admit that it had been a while since I'd had any sort of action that wasn't provided by a battery-operated device. Maybe that was why, in my drunken state, the words had just spewed forth, unchecked. I groaned again as I recalled all of the details that I had told them. And not just the details of his impressive cock… No, I had finally verbalized my feelings about the last time we had sex; the slow and sweet, almost desperate sex that left me feeling more connected to Edward—a man that I barely knew—than to any other person in my entire history, sexual or otherwise.

_Argh!_

In an attempt to shake the memories of last night—both the conversation and the dream—I rolled out of bed and padded to the bathroom. As I brushed my teeth, I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked really tired, which shouldn't have been a big surprise considering that I had been rudely awoken every night without fail for the past thirty-five nights by that recurrent fucking dream. I didn't like the knowing look in my eyes or the excited flush that caused my cheeks and chest to glow. With a snort, I turned away.

Deciding that I needed to do… _something_… I settled on taking a run, another occurrence that had increased in frequency over the past few weeks. I suddenly had a seemingly endless supply of nervous energy that needed to be burned, despite the fact that I got very little sleep.

Twenty minutes later, my feet were pounding the pavement. But even with my iPod blaring really fucking loudly in my ears, my brain was still free to wander, and it did; it settled with disturbing quickness and ease on Edward. His eyes, his hands, his long, hard and thick cock…

_Fuck_!

Those thoughts didn't really help to settle me down. Quite the contrary; my heart was racing, although I didn't think that it had anything to do the three miles I had just put in. With as much exercise as I was getting regularly, I could now easily run three miles in less than thirty minutes.

Today, with my mind occupied by Edward rather than my pacing, I made it in under twenty-five.

By the time I made it back to the apartment, I was hot, sweaty, tired, and horny. I shoved my key into the lock and threw the door open. Stomping into the kitchen, I muttered to myself under my breath about flashing green eyes and copper-colored sex hair. I yanked open the refrigerator, snagged the OJ, and took a big swig right from the bottle before I slammed the door shut, all the while grumbling about long, lean fingers and a beautiful, hard cock. Turning around, I ran straight into Rosalie. She was smiling widely at me.

"Not a word," I ordered as I stalked past her towards my bedroom.

To her credit, she didn't say anything. But I heard her laugh as soon as I closed my bedroom door.

I stripped off my sweaty work-out clothes as I walked to my bed. Clad only in my undergarments, I flopped unceremoniously onto my back and shoved my hands into my hair, snorting in derision as my mind once again settled on Edward. This was becoming a real problem; I couldn't concentrate on anything beyond… _him_. Maybe I should just call him and get that shit over with, because I was getting really tired of my hopeless Edward Cullen obsession.

_No. _

I sighed in resignation. It was far better to keep him safely ensconced as nothing more than an obsessive fantasy in my mind rather than chance a conversation with him. I could handle the fantasy, but the real man? I wasn't so sure about that. Besides, the fantasy was what I needed right now…

A smile twitched at the corner of my lips as I reached over to the drawer of my bedside table and withdrew one of the toys I had demonstrated to the girls the previous evening. After I removed my underwear, I settled more comfortably in my bed and embraced the fantasy.

~/~

The rest of the morning passed without further incident. Alice and I took Rose shopping to make up for our lack of proper entertainment the evening before. It was a beautiful June day, and we all enjoyed walking outside, wandering aimlessly and window shopping. We stopped to eat at one of those little bistro-type restaurants that had outdoor tables, and we were happily noshing on salads and drinking spritzer waters—we had all sworn off alcohol for the immediate future—when Rose's phone rang. She looked to the caller ID and smiled.

"It's Jasper! I've gotta take this."

Jasper was Rosalie's cousin. She had mentioned the previous evening that he had recently moved to LA and was trying to break into the music business. I knew that she was hoping to see him during her visit. They talked for a few minutes about family and life in general before she paused in her conversation.

"Hold on…" Putting her hand over the speaker, she looked to us and asked, "What are we doing tonight?"

"Well, I'm working," I offered with an apologetic smile. "But I'll try to meet up with you guys, wherever you are, when I get off."

Rose turned her attention to Alice, who shrugged; she hadn't made any definite plans yet.

"Do you know of a bar named _New Moon_?"

I sucked in a quick breath and shot Alice a meaningful glance, but not before her eyes lit up. She responded eagerly to Rose's inquiry.

"Yeah… it's this great little Martini bar down on Sunset. We've been a few times, but it's been a while…" She shot me a dirty look; _Twilight_ wasn't the only bar/club I was avoiding these days.

Alice continued, "They have the dueling pianos on the weekends. I've only seen them once, but it was really cool."

Rose nodded. "Jasper's playing the piano there tonight. Wanna go?"

"Sure!" Alice responded quickly.

I groaned, and she shot a triumphantly evil smirk in my direction.

"_New Moon_ is only a few blocks from the restaurant where Bella works," Alice told Rose. "She can meet us there when she gets off." She turned to me. "How late are you working tonight?"

"I'm scheduled for one of the late shifts. I won't have to close, but it'll probably be pretty late… maybe 11:30ish?"

Alice nodded. "That's fine. You know that those clubs never really pick up until midnight anyways. Come on over when you get off."

And that was that.

Turning back to Rose, Alice asked, "What time do we need to be there?"

Rose conveyed our conversation to Jasper and nodded at his response. Then she looked back to Alice.

"He starts playing at ten-thirty. If we can get there by ten, we can visit with him for a few minutes before he goes on. Wait…" Her attention shifted back to the phone. "What was that, Jasper?" She nodded to her phone again. "Let me ask… Hey, Alice, would it be okay if we met Jasper for dinner before the show? He's still pretty new here in town and doesn't know that many people yet…."

"Sure," Alice chirped.

Turning her attention back to the phone, she addressed her cousin. "What time do you need to be there?"

She nodded at whatever he said, and then looked to Alice with raised eyebrows while she asked both of them the question. "So, how about dinner at eight?"

Alice nodded her assent, and Rose smiled at Jasper's response. The next question was also directed at the both of them.

"Where do we want to go?"

"Why don't you guys come to _Il Palio_?" I chimed in, naming the restaurant where I worked. "At least I'd get to see you that way…"

Alice smiled widely and Rose conveyed the information to Jasper. They talked for a few moments longer before she said goodbye and ended the conversation.

"I'm so glad that we'll all get to see him tonight," she stated as she slipped her phone back into her pocket. "He needs to socialize more, and I worry about him…"

Her tone suggested that there was a lot more to his story than the little bit of information she had divulged so far. I raised my eyebrows in question. Rose sighed.

"He's had a rough time of it since he came back from Iraq. You guys be nice tonight, okay?"

I rolled my eyes at her rhetorical question—I was never mean, especially to people I didn't know—but I nodded affirmatively nonetheless. So did Alice.

We returned to our lunch, then continued with our shopping.

~/~

At four-thirty that afternoon, I was headed to work. After years of waiting tables to pay for school, I didn't particularly enjoy the restaurant business anymore, but I wouldn't start my full-time teaching position at Loyola Marymount until the fall. So, I held onto my restaurant job to supplement the meager stipend I was pulling down teaching summer classes with Dr. Aro at UCLA. Besides, _Il Palio_ was one of the more upscale Italian restaurants in this part of town, attracting an exclusive clientele, so the tips were good. Really good.

Waiting tables was hard and sometimes thankless work, but at least I really liked the people with whom I worked, which made the hours pass a bit more quickly. I greeted Charlotte, the hostess, when I stopped at the front desk to look at the floor assignments for the evening. I yelled a 'hello' at Peter as I passed through the bar on my way to the kitchen, and I winked at Laurent as I walked past the small office just inside the door to the kitchen where he presided every evening. Victoria was already in the employee locker-room when I got there, and we shot the shit for a few minutes as we both tied on our aprons and made sure that our hair was pulled up and properly secured. At five o'clock, we wandered out onto the floor and began the usual craziness of life in a restaurant.

It was a busy night, but the time flew by quickly. I was somewhat surprised when, sometime later, I caught a glimpse of Alice sitting at one of my tables. A glance at my watch assured me that it was indeed eight o'clock. Grabbing my tray, I made my way to their table. Only Alice was looking in my direction—Rose and Jasper had their backs to me—and when I got closer, I realized that she had a somewhat stressed look on her face. When I stepped up to the table and Rose introduced me to her cousin, I finally understood why. A huge grin exploded on my lips, and Alice's looked morphed into one of discomfort.

"Hey, Jasper," I greeted cordially.

"Ma'am," he intoned in his silky, southern drawl. His hello was complemented with a small head-tilt.

I laughed in response as Alice squirmed in her chair.

I instantly recognized Rose's cousin Jasper as one of the bartenders at _Eclipse_, a third bar in Edward Cullen's club empire. It was more of a live music venue, but they had a great chef in the kitchen who kept the regulars coming back for more than just the open-mic nights that they hosted every week. We had eaten there a few times, and we had first noticed Jasper there a little over a month ago, right after my night with Edward. With his trim figure, wavy blond hair, and soulful blue eyes, Jasper was quite the looker. My eyes narrowed in contemplation. As I watched her shoot covert glances in his direction, I now understood why Alice had been so eager to return—this was the first time that I had seen her show any interest in a guy in the time that we had lived together. I chuckled lightly, which earned me a narrow-eyed glare from Alice.

It was nice to visit with them periodically throughout their meal, even if I didn't get the chance to spend too much time talking; my other tables kept me busy and I didn't have as much time to socialize as I would have liked. Although I have to admit that the conversation seemed a bit stilted this evening; Rose was doing her best to control the conversation, but her two dining companions seemed to resist her efforts.

I found the interaction between Alice and Jasper to be intriguing; Alice seemed to be completely absorbed by him, yet she tried in vain to hide her interest. She blushed wildly just about every time he addressed her, and she only seemed capable of monosyllabic answers in response to his questions, which was quite out of character for my usually over-exuberant roommate. Jasper seemed to be just as curious about her, although there was definitely a reserved air about him as well. Maybe they would be good for each other… I still didn't know all of Alice's history—there were certain things from her past that she would not talk about—but I knew that something… _bad_… had happened to her in New York. Something that was serious enough to cause her to move all the way across the country and change her identity.

All too soon, their dinner was over, and they were leaving. I told Jasper that it was nice to meet him as they stood from the table, and I hugged both Rose and Alice, who still seemed to be in a bit of a daze.

I smiled encouragingly at Alice, and while my arms were wrapped around her waist, I whispered into her ear, "I think he likes you."

She blushed furiously and looked down at her feet, while she fussed nervously with her hair. She finally raised her head and met my eyes with a look that was equal parts excitement and panic.

"Do you really think so?"

I surreptitiously glanced in Jasper's direction. He was talking with Rose, but his eyes kept darting to Alice. I laughed lightly.

"Oh yeah, sweetie, I'm sure. I think he's got it bad."

Her cheeks flamed again, but her eyes sparkled in merriment.

"Good. But I'm scared…"

I pulled away in order to look at her. Baffled, I asked, "Why would you be scared?"

A dreamy look crossed her face. "Because I feel like I've been waiting my whole life just for him."

As soon as the words left her mouth, her hand flew to her lips, a look of shock on her face. I pulled her into a tight hug and whispered conspiratorially into her ear.

"It's about fucking time you met someone…"

She laughed into my shoulder as her arms wrapped around my neck.

"Thanks, Bella," she whispered.

We stepped apart, and I assured them all that I would come to the bar as soon as my shift was over. I waved goodbye as they walked away and turned back to my tables.

~/~

I was in the kitchen, about an hour after Alice, Rose and Jasper left, when the wait staff began twittering the way they do when someone famous arrives. It was really quite annoying… the whispering and the furtive glances. I rolled my eyes as I dropped my dirty dishes off at the dishwasher. Turning to the grill, I waited for my next order to be plated. Just as I was reaching for the dishes for the couple sitting at my two-top, Victoria breezed into the kitchen and made a bee-line for me.

"Oh, Bella," she called in her sing-song voice. "You got a celeb, babe. If he's too hot for you, let me know. I'll be glad to serve him, in whatever capacity he desires."

She waggled her eyebrows and winked at me before she walked away with her dirty dishes. I rolled my eyes; I just didn't get the fascination with the celebrities. I had never been one to follow the gossip, and I always tried my best to not acknowledge their celebrity status if I served someone famous. I imagined that if it was annoying to me to have to watch it, it must be doubly annoying for them to actually live it.

Resolved to treat whomever it was that had been seated at my section with absolute indifference, I grabbed the plates and made my way out to the floor. I dropped the entrees off at the table for two and turned to survey my tables. The new couple was seated at the out-of-the-way table in the corner; it was somewhat secluded, making it one of the best in the house. As I walked in their direction, I took in the scene, curious about who might have made such an impression.

The man's back was facing me, but I had a clear view of his strawberry blonde companion. I didn't recognize her; she was young, but beautiful, with a gorgeous complexion and wide blue eyes. She was dressed casually, yet fashionably. Her hands were stretched across the surface of the table where her fingers were firmly clasping his. She looked upset, but she was nodding at whatever he was saying to her.

I was looking at the woman as I reached the table and began my usual spiel.

"Hi guys, my name is Bella, and I'll be—"

My words trailed off as I turned to address the man and found myself looking into startled green eyes.

_Oh. My. God. _

_You've gotta be fucking kidding me._

I stared at him in horror. My mouth was still agape, but any remaining words were stuck in the back of my throat. My eyes darted between his face and the table, where his fingers were still entwined with the blonde bitch's. He snatched his hands away from hers when he saw where my eyes were focused, but it was too late. I snapped my mouth shut, my head shaking side-to-side.

"Bella?" he asked, the tone of his voice revealing his shock and surprise at my appearance.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, backing away from the table, my head still shaking.

Hell, it wasn't just my head shaking, my whole body was trembling, and I felt the blood drain from my face as I stared at the object of my sexual fantasies. I'm sure that I had a horrified look on my face, because his eyes pinched as he registered my retreat.

The second time he spoke my name, it was in a panicked tone. "Bella!"

"I can't do this…" I whispered agitatedly.

At m y words, he made to stand up, his hand outstretched in a gesture of appeal. I paused momentarily as I looked longingly at him. But then my gaze strayed to the blonde at the table who was looking at me with a scowl. So, I did what every self-respecting woman does when confronted with the man of her dreams.

I fled.

There was some sort of commotion behind me, but I didn't turn around. I needed to get to the safety of the kitchen as quickly as possible. Well, make that the restroom—my stomach had begun churning uncomfortably, and I fervently hoped that I would make my destination before my dinner made its inevitable reappearance.

I made it, just barely, roughly pushing past the kitchen staff in my desperate lunge for the employee bathroom. As soon as I made it to the toilet, my stomach heaved violently. I sank to my knees, lying my head on the cool porcelain of the toilet seat while I gasped desperately for breath.

I had been in there for quite some time—with two additional stomach-emptying events—when there was a knock on the door.

"Bella?" Victoria's voice was worried.

I squeezed my eyes shut briefly, then took a deep breath and opened them.

"Just a minute," I replied shakily.

Pushing myself from the floor, I stood. I flushed the toilet and washed my hands, then reluctantly raised my eyes to the mirror. I was startled by my appearance—my usually pale skin was whiter than normal, a sheen of sweat covered my forehead, and the eyes stared back at me were wary. Yeah… I looked like shit. I splashed some water on my face, but it didn't help. With a sigh, I turned away from the mirror and made my way to the door.

When I pushed it open, Victoria was waiting on the other side. She looked concerned, and that concern morphed into alarm when she registered my appearance.

"Damn, girl. You look like shit. What happened?"

I just shook my head. I didn't want to explain. Instead, I offered a feeble, "I don't feel well… I think I need to go home…"

She nodded at me in return. "I've already taken care of your tables."

I smiled weakly. "Thanks."

"When I saw you run in here earlier looking sick…" She paused for a moment, a meaningful look on her face. Then she sighed longingly, a dreamy expression crossing her features. "Besides, I'm not gonna complain at all—Edward Cullen is the object of just about every one of my wet dreams."

_Mine, too. _

_Only my dreams were rooted in reality._

_Fuck. _

I sighed, closing my eyes against the memories that once again flooded my brain: Edward standing in the club, looking like a smoking-hot sex god; Edward dancing suggestively with me; Edward touching me for the first time, as soon as we walked through the door of his condo; me, on my knees, taking him into my mouth; the first time; the second time; the third time… I squeezed my eyes more tightly shut as each of those erotic memories ran through my mind. I think I moaned a little, although I didn't know if it was in agony or ecstasy.

"Bella?"

My eyes opened slowly to find Victoria looking at me intently.

"Are you gonna be sick again?" she asked.

I shook my head, but I wasn't really sure. I just knew that I needed to get the fuck out of here. As quickly and covertly as possible; after what I just experienced, I had no desire to run into to Edward again. She nodded, then placed her hand on my shoulder.

"Go talk to Laurent. It's…" she looked at her watch, "almost eleven. Your shift is almost over anyways. I'm sure he'll let you leave. If I were him, I wouldn't want you serving food—not looking the way you do right now."

I grimaced in response to her words.

"Sorry, sweetie," she added with a rueful smile. "But you _do_ look like shit."

"Thanks," I mumbled sarcastically as she pulled me into a hug.

When she released me, I took a step back and sent a small, grateful smile in her direction. Victoria's eyes were pinched slightly as she studied me, and I didn't like the questioning glances that she was sending in my direction. Victoria was smart, another grad student working her way through school, and I was afraid that it wouldn't take her too long to put two and two together… I had been perfectly fine before encountering Edward; merely glancing at him had sent me into a total fucking tailspin.

I turned away from her—before she could ask any questions—and went in search of my boss. I found Laurent in the office; he took one look at my face and told me that I didn't need to go back on the floor. After I informed him that Victoria had taken over my tables, he told me to go ahead and leave.

I hightailed it out of there as quickly as my feet could carry me. Out the back door, I should add, because, yeah... I was a total fucking coward. I scuttled through the back alleyway like a paranoid rat, my breath coming in short pants, and finally I emerged on the street two blocks over.

My feet had unerringly led me to the place where my friends were; I had reentered the street one block down from _New Moon_. I really was _not_ in any mood to socialize, but at the same time, I didn't want to go home to an empty apartment where I would have way to much time and opportunity to wallow. I also decided that I needed a drink.

Really. Fucking. Badly.

After showing my ID to the bouncer at the door, I entered the club and made my way straight to the bar. It was busy, so I waited, somewhat impatiently, I might add—my feet were tapping the floor and my fingers drummed the countertop in irritation—for the bartender to sidle over to me.

"What'll it be?" he finally asked.

"I really don't give a shit."

His eyebrows rose at my irritated tone, and a smirk graced his lips. I rolled my eyes.

"Surprise me. But make it a shot, and make it really fucking strong," I replied with a huff.

His eyes widened at my tone, his smile expanding, but he nodded in assent and turned to the bottles behind him. When the shooter appeared in front of me, I knocked it back quickly, relishing the burn of the alcohol as it slid down my throat. I quickly signaled for a second.

Ten minutes and two more shots later, I took my fruity mixed drink and went in search of my friends. Following the raucous sound of piano music and the cheers of the crowd, I made my way deeper into the bar. I finally found them at the back, cheering for Jasper as he dueled away on the piano. Even in my drunken state, I realized that he was quite good.

When I slid, somewhat unsteadily, into the vacant seat next to Alice, she and Rose both turned to look at me in surprise.

"You're early," Alice stated, smiling.

I nodded, taking a deep draught of my drink. "I didn't feel well, so Laurent let me leave a bit early."

Her eyes narrowed as she took in my disheveled appearance and her eyes darted to the drink in my hand. Her smile faded.

"Bella? How long have you been here?"

"Not too long," I hedged. Even I could tell that my words were slightly slurred.

"Are you drunk already?" she asked in astonishment.

I was beginning to feel the telltale numbness that signified that I was indeed well on my way to getting drunk.

"I really fucking hope so," I replied, taking another gulp of my drink. I frowned when I realized that the glass was already empty. I signaled a passing waiter and ordered another.

Alice was looking at me in alarm now. "Just how much have you had?"

I had the wisdom to look sheepish as I admitted to four shots and then lifted my now-empty glass. Alice's eyes widened and her mouth fell open at my admission. I didn't usually drink this much when we went out unless something had happened to upset me, a fact with which Alice was well aware.

"What the fuck happened to you?" she asked.

I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them, both Alice and Rose were looking at me pointedly. I huffed in drunken frustration then dropped my head to my hands, which were resting on the table. I felt tears prickling against the back of my eyelids.

"Bella, sweetie…" Rose prodded.

I huffed again and tilted my head to look at them through bleary, watery eyes.

"You really wanna know what happened?" I asked angrily.

They both nodded.

Another weary sigh escaped my lips, and I felt my eyes lose their battle with the errant tears that were threatening to spill over. I dashed angrily at the salty trails on my cheeks. My words, when I finally spoke them, were a tortured groan.

"Edward fucking Cullen happened."

* * *

**A/N:** So, several weeks later, they finally run into each other. And Bella runs. Again. Don't worry, though... Edward _will _track her down! LOL.

What did you think? Favorite parts? Anything you'd like to see in future chapters? Hit the little green button (or is it blue now?) and let me know!

Hopefully it won't be so long before the next update, but I am working on three multi-chapts right now, and I will be going on vacation for 10 days (without my computer) in two weeks. TaLT is 3 chapters from being complete, then I will focus my attention on RE and SfS.

Thanks for your patience, and I hope this update was worth the wait!

oh... I"m on Twitter now: KristenLynn1121 and I've opened a FB account solely for FF (Kristen Lynn--with the same kitty avitar). Come play with me at either site!

:)

KL


	7. Chapter 7 Days Go By

**A/N:** OMG… it's a chapter! *gasps* I am so sorry for the delay, guys! To be honest, I've actually had a large portion of this chapter written for quite a while *cough* several months *cough*, but I hit a writing block that left me stagnant for even longer. No worries, this story will be completed. With this chapter, we're about ½ done, as I envision this story to be 13-15 chapters…

Special thanks to Lezlee for stepping in as beta on this one.

**Disclaimer:** Twilight and all of its characters, dialog, situations, etc. belong to Stephenie Meyer. I've just plucked them from their protected little world and plopped them down in the middle of a bit more… worldly setting. Here they get to play (and curse) a bit more. Heehee.

**Chapter 7 Playlist:** Days Go By (Dirty Vegas), Sadeness Part I (Enigma), Burn (Sister Machine Gun), My Memory is Back (Jamnesia)

* * *

*** * * * * Random Encounters * * * * * **

You are still a whisper on my lips  
A feeling at my fingertips  
That's pulling at my skin  
You leave me when I'm at my worst  
Feeling as if I've been cursed  
Bitter cold within

Days go by and still I think of you…

-_Days Go By_, Dirty Vegas

* * *

**Edward**

**Saturday, June 13, 2009**

**9am**

Sitting at my desk, I found myself staring at the same fucking piece of paper that I had been staring at for the past hour. It was an important document concerning our newest club, _Dawn_, but I was unable to focus on it, or the legal matter to which it pertained. Unfortunately, that seemed to be a recurring problem lately; I had been unable to focus on _anything_.

Except Bella.

I'd never been fixated on anyone the way that I'd obsessed over Bella for the past five weeks, and I didn't really know what my deal was. Hell… Maybe it was the fact that I had no fucking clue _who_ she was. Or possibly the fact that she had made no effort to contact me at all, a situation I was completely unfamiliar with—in the past, most of the women I'd gone home with had made an effort to turn an evening of sex into something more, which was really fucking annoying.

But now, on the other side of it… Well, I really wished that _she_ would call.

_Fuck._

I slammed my fist against my desk in frustration and shook my head in irritated disgust.

_What the hell is wrong with me?_

My work was suffering. I'd _never_ had problems focusing before—my work was my life—but now I was completely scatterbrained. Or maybe I was mind-fucked. Fuck, I don't know. Either way, it wasn't good.

My lack of focus was likely related to the fact that I couldn't sleep. What little sleep I did manage to get was interrupted by restless dreams that were focused on one thing, and one thing only: sex with Bella. Instead of fading over time, the memories preserved in those dreams had only intensified; I awoke each morning with a raging hard-on and blue balls that required immediate attention. Over the last month, I'd spent more time stroking the one-eyed snake than I ever had before.

Shaking my head, I realized I was still staring at the same fucking piece of paper. But instead of words, I saw silky mahogany hair, pale ivory skin and molten chocolate-colored eyes. That hair was fanned across my pillow, the ivory limbs were tangled in my sheets, and the eyes were half-closed and rolled back in a moment of ecstasy.

I actually groaned when the phone rang, pulling me out of my reverie. I didn't know if I was thankful for or irritated by the distraction. But I was the only one here, so I needed to answer.

"_Twilight_," I snapped into the receiver. Then I softened my tone. "This is Edward. How can I help you."

"Hey, Edward, this is Marcus." Marcus was the manager of one of our other clubs, _New Moon_.

"Is Emmett around?"

"Not today," I replied. "Something I can help you with?"

"Actually, yeah. I should probably talk to you about this anyway. Look... Alistair just called in sick. He won't be able to play tonight. And Liam already has a gig scheduled at another club."

Alistair and Liam were two of our pianists. The back-up pianists. Alistair was scheduled to play tonight because Randall, one of our regular players, was out of town.

"What you want to do?" Marcus asked. "You gonna play?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed heavily. _I _was the last-resort, back-up player. However, I was scouting bands with Tanya tonight. But even if I didn't have plans, I had no desire to play.

"I'm not sure I can tonight."

"What should I do, then?"

I sighed again as I dropped my hand and tilted my head up to the ceiling. "Don't worry, Marcus. I'll figure something out."

I huffed as I hung up the phone. For a moment, I was lost for thought. I was irritated as fuck because I'd had plans to scout this particular band for over a month. Not to mention, I wasn't fucking kidding when I mentioned earlier that I really didn't want to play. I hated being the center of attention.

_Ironic, isn't it?_

I smiled when the answer finally came to me: we had recently hired a new bartender who claimed to have piano experience.

Walking over to the filing cabinet that contained all our personnel files, I pulled the folder in question. Jasper Whitlock was new to L.A., an Iraqi war vet who hailed from Texas. He'd been hired at _Eclipse_, our live music venue because he had listed experience with music—both piano and guitar. He tended bar, but he also participated in the open-mic night that occurred every Wednesday night at that particular club. I hadn't heard him play yet, but feedback over the past month had been very positive.

I picked up the phone and dialed the contact number listed on the application.

An hour later, the anxiety I'd experienced when Marcus had first called was put to rest, and I'd found something other than Bella upon which to concentrate. I was sitting at the bar at _New Moon_, listening to Jasper play, and he was good. _Really good_. He played any request I threw at him, and he played it fucking brilliantly. When I asked him to sing, I knew that I'd found a goldmine.

The talent scout in me knew that we likely wouldn't hold onto him for long. Millions of people poured into L.A. each year in pursuit of their Hollywood dreams, whether they be music or movies. Ninety-nine point nine percent of those dreamers didn't make it, didn't have what it takes.

Jasper did.

I'd have to see how he did in front of an audience, not to mention playing with someone else, but the club manager in me was already eager to ask him to join our piano rotation.

The agent in me was trying to figure out for what genre of music I could package him and which record label would be the best fit.

When the impromptu try-out was over, I asked Jasper to be here at ten so that he and Garrett would be able to meet and possibly practice for a bit before the set started at ten-thirty. We shook hands and departed the club.

~/~

Shortly after ten o'clock that evening, Tanya and I exited the small, underground club where we had gone to listen to a few obscure bands. We were dressed overly-casual in order to avoid recognition; I was wearing jeans and a plain, gray T-shirt, a baseball cap and an over-sized pair of Ray Ban's. The fact that we escaped without anyone attempting to talk to us made me believe that we had succeeded in our covert mission.

She'd been quiet all night, which wasn't normal for Tanya. Usually, she was over-exuberant and flirty—even with me—always pushing the limits. But tonight, she had been withdrawn and looked worried. In an attempt to draw her out, I asked her about the bands. I'd already made my decision, but I was interested in determining if we were on the same page, professionally.

"So… What'd you think?"

"Well, I know that they have a loyal local following, but that first band sucked. And the name? Spank Your Monkey? _Please_! Who'd want to spank their monkey to that shit?" She rolled her eyes, and I chuckled in response. "But the second one wasn't bad. Their music was solid. With a little repackaging, and a new songwriter, we could probably market them as an Indie rock group."

The second band was the one I had gone to hear. I nodded at her assessment; it mirrored my own. However, she took it one step further—I hadn't thought about a new writer, but once she suggested it, I knew it was the element I'd been missing. I flung my arm around her shoulder as we strolled down the street, giving her a reassuring hug. Tanya really was proving to have a knack for the music business, and I was really fucking glad that her obvious ear for talent would eliminate the accusations of nepotism when I brought her onboard full-time after her internship was complete.

We'd just hailed a cab when my stomach growled loudly. I hadn't taken the time to eat prior to meeting her earlier, and my body was letting me know that I was fucking starved.

"You hungry?" she asked with a laugh.

"I could eat," I replied with a small chuckle. "Wanna grab a bite?"

"What you got in mind?"

"Somewhere close to _New Moon—_I really need to head over there later, see how the new guy is doing. I'd like to get your opinion on him, as well. There's an Italian place just around the corner; I've been there once or twice. It's pretty good."

"Sounds good," she replied. But the sad look was back in her eye, and it worried me a bit.

Ten minutes later, the cab stopped in front of the restaurant. It was an upscale place, and at first, I worried that we might be underdressed in our casual attire. But as soon as we arrived at the hostess stand, we were immediately attended to—I had removed my glasses, and in the well-lit lobby, it only took a moment for recognition to flash on her face.

"Welcome to _Il Palio, _Mr. Cullen. Will you need a table for two tonight?" she asked as her eyes flicked between Tanya and me.

"Yes, please. Somewhere out of the way, if possible…"

I slipped her bill, and she flushed when our hands brushed. Then she nodded.

"Let me see what I can do…"

In no time we were seated at a table for two in a quiet corner of the restaurant. It was the perfect setting for a quiet conversation.

"So, T… Want to tell me what's going on?"

"What?" she asked, her head snapping up and her eyes meeting my own.

"You're quiet tonight. That's not normal. So, what's bugging you?"

"Uh…" she hedged, her gaze falling to her hands, which were twisted together on the table. I continued to stare at her, and eventually, she huffed. "Damn… you know me too well."

I chuckled. "You're family, T. Of course I know you. In fact, I probably know more than you realize…"

Her eyes rose once more to mine. She looked agonized at my admission.

"Fuck," she whispered. "Emmett told you, didn't he?"

I reached out to squeeze her fingers gently and nodded. "He's family, too…"

"Oh, Edward… I like him so much. I know I said no strings, and I meant it at the time, but I can't help what I _feel_… And after that night, I feel so much more than I ever thought I would."

She wrapped her fingers around mine tightly and looked at me with tremulous eyes. Then she spilled her soul. After listening patiently for several minutes, I shook my head ruefully at Tanya's depressed ramblings. Jesus… were all women this fucking neurotic and crazy? She herself admitted that Emmett had spelled everything out prior to fucking her, told her explicitly that he was not looking for a relationship. Yet she was still hoping that he would change his mind?

_Women… who the fuck understood anything they did?_

Thankfully my conversation with Tanya was interrupted when our waitress arrived at our table.

"Hi guys, my name is Bella, and I'll be—"

I turned away from my cousin and found myself staring into the brown eyes of the enigma for whom I had spent the last five weeks searching. If I hadn't already been sitting, I would have needed to, because all of a sudden it felt as if the world had dropped out from beneath my fucking feet. I wasn't alone in my shock; her mouth was moving, but no words were coming out. Her eyes shifted restlessly, and the corners pinched into a frown when she looked down at the table.

Following her angry gaze, I looked down to find my fingers wrapped around Tanya's. Realizing immediately what she must be thinking, I snatched my hands away, but it was too fucking late; the damage had obviously been done. I needed to explain, but I still wasn't past the shock of running into her like this.

"Bella?" I asked.

My voice sounded strangely hesitant to my own ears, which bothered me. I was _never_ uncertain when it came to women.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Before I registered what was happening, she was backing away from the table. Her head shook in denial and her face was deathly pale—all color had drained from her cheeks at our first eye-contact. With each backwards step that she took, my brain became even more confused about what I should do. But I knew I couldn't lose her.

_Not again_.

I choked her name out once more, my tone begging her to stay. "Bella!"

Her response was not the one I was looking for.

"I can't do this…" she whispered agitatedly.

Without conscious thought, I rose to my feet and reached toward—_for_—her. A look of unrestrained longing washed across her face as she gazed back at me for a moment. Then her eyes slid to the side and a look of utter disappointment displaced the hopeful expression on her face. Before I could say or do a fucking thing, she whirled around and ran from the table like a bat out of hell.

She might not want to do this, but it was all I had been longing for over the past five weeks. _She_ was all that I had thought about. To be this close…

Kicking myself back into action, I shoved my chair back so that I could move from the table. Unfortunately, I used a little too much force, and it fell over, clattering loudly to the floor. Ignoring the scene that I was creating, I made to follow her. But Tanya's shocked voice stopped me.

"Edward? What the hell are you doing?"

I halted and turned to look at her with what I feared were haunted eyes.

"Wait… Do you know her?" she asked, incredulously.

I didn't answer, but I guess I didn't need to. My expression must have said it all, because her eyes widened in surprise, and a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. She cocked her head to the side, a knowing look settling on her features.

"Yes, you do," she stated. She grinned eagerly, evilly, templing her fingers in front of her face. She cocked her eyebrows. "The question is, how well do you know her?"

I didn't want to answer that question. I fucking wanted to follow Bella, but I knew that I had missed my opportunity. So, instead, I leaned down and righted the chair that I had knocked over. As soon as I sat down, the attention from nearby tables—which had been trained on me—receded as patrons returned to their meals, realizing the show was over. Within seconds, everything was as it had been prior to Bella's arrival at our table. Well, not everything… There was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I'd never before experienced—an uncomfortable hollowness that left me feeling unsettled. I didn't like it. Not one fucking bit.

I huffed out an irritated breath and shoved a hand into my hair, tugging on it roughly. Tanya's chuckle snapped me back into reality.

"Holy shit, Edward! Do you _know_ know her? Like in the biblical sense of the word?"

I did know her. In the exact fucking sense that Tanya was implying. And hearing her say it like that sent me right back to that night, right back to our final encounter of that night—the encounter that had been haunting me for weeks. The one that I refused to fucking think about. But seeing Bella tonight had triggered something deep within me, and this time I couldn't prevent the memories from rushing in…

~/~

_I awoke slowly, for a moment simultaneously comforted and confused by the warmth that surrounded me. My nose twitched, and I opened my eyes to find my head buried in her hair. I took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of strawberries and… __**sex**__—the scents I would forever associate with Bella. When I squeezed my arms slightly, she sighed and pushed back more snugly against my chest. My fingers traced absent designs on her arms, my touch light enough to draw chills and cause her to shiver in response. _

_Suddenly, she pulled away from me. For a moment, I felt absolutely fucking bereft—my empty arms actually ached. But then she flipped to face me, scooting closer so that our thighs and chests touched. She raised her hands to my face and brushed her thumb against my stubbled cheek. _

_We didn't talk. Hell, at that point, we didn't have to. Every emotion was evident on her overly-expressive face and in her eyes—her hopes and fears, her desire, all laid out for me to see. I knew that my expressions were similar, that I was feeling everything she was. But, shit. This was so more than just a desire to be with her... It was a deep-seated __**need**__._

_I needed to possess her. Mind and body. No holds barred._

_I wasn't the only one with a need. Her fingers burned as they touched me—ghosting up my side, across my chest, over my shoulder. It was like a flame__ was ignited wherever she touched me, scorching my skin and causing me to ache with anticipation. Sucking in a strangled breath, my eyes slid shut just as her fingers slipped into my hair._

_She tugged. Hard. I couldn't control the groan that rumbled through my chest at the sensations that crashed through my body as her fingers scratched my scalp._

_Unable to remain an inactive participant any longer, I dropped a hand to her hip, stroking softly. With unsteady fingers, I worshipped her perfect body, my hand sweeping from waist to chest to neck, finally cupping her cheek and pulling her face to mine._

_The kiss was gentle and reverent, yet at the same time explosive and tumultuous; it was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. She moaned softly and pressed herself against me, shoving her tongue into my mouth, searching for more. Electric awareness shot straight from my lips to my groin, and in seconds, my rock-hard cock was poking her hip. My fingers dug into the soft flesh of her hip in an attempt to haul her even closer to me. _

_Instead, she rolled onto her back. I followed, wanting nothing more than to be with her. To be __**in**__ her. Unable to control myself, I rubbed my cock against her hot, wet pussy. She whimpered and bucked her hips against me, causing me to hiss at the pleasurable sensation of my tip sliding in. I wanted nothing more than to plunge forward and lose myself in her completely, but I needed to draw it out just a little while longer. So I pulled back and slid my length between her slick lips, rocking gently. She gasped against my mouth, and I breathed that strangled sound in, savoring it on my tongue. _

_Sliding my hands down her arms, I clasped her fingers and guided her arms above her head. Only when she was stretched out fully beneath me, when I could feel every inch of our skin touching, and when the head of my cock was once again poised against the entryway to heaven, did I spear her with my desperate stare. Almost immediately, her head dipped in acknowledgement of my silent question. Her body shifted slightly beneath me, opening, making herself ready. Tightening my hands around hers and never looking away from her awe-struck gaze, I pushed forward, filling her._

"_Yes."_

"_Oh, God, yes…"_

_She was hot and tight and… __**home**__. Pumping slowly, I filled her again and again. Her hips met each one of my eager thrusts, her body instinctively drawing mine in further each time. It was too much, but not enough, and soon, we were engaged in a battle of wills and bodies as we raced towards the finish line together, yet desperately attempted to hold onto each and every sensation and make it last. I needed release, but wasn't ready for the experience to be over. Not ready for the connection to be severed._

_The climax, when it came, was explosive and enveloped my entire body. My fingers tingled where they held hers captive. The hot, slick, sweat-covered skin of my chest and stomach burned where it made contact with her. Anticipation pooled in my fucking gut and crept down into my balls, signifying my imminent release. I held on until she uttered a soft cry, and her body clenched around mine, hugging me close, pulling me deeper. With a groan, and one final thrust, I lost myself in her, once again giving her everything that I had, everything that I was. _

~/~

The sound of Tanya's over-exuberant laugh tore me from my recollection. I was breathing hard, there and there was an incriminating and throbbing tightness in my pants.

Shit. I did _not_ need this.

"Just wait 'til Esme gets a whiff of this…"

My mother was the epitome of high-class snobbery gone wrong. Raised with all the privileges that only old money can bring, she looked down on anyone who was not privileged like she had been. My father wasn't much better. Although he had fled the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, he had done so in order to attend a prestigious—and pretentious—medical school. Their marriage had been the union of two very fucking rich families.

Neither would look very favorably on my interest in a girl—woman—with a bourgeois background. I could imagine it now… the scorn, the suspicion, the accusations of her being a 'gold digger', which might have held some sway had Bella known who I was prior to our evening together or had she made a nuisance of herself following our encounter. But neither of those scenarios were the case here. In fact, despite all my attempts to do so, _I_ had been unable to track _her_ down. Not that my parents would believe that. They were too cynical.

"…Edward, the golden child, hooking up with a _waitress_."

She snorted in derision, and my scowl deepened. The way she emphasized the last word caused anger to burn in the pit of my stomach. It quickly reached out, fingers of flame encompassing my entire being. Unable to contain the emotion that had suddenly claimed my rationality, I exploded.

"Shut the fuck up, Tanya," I snarled.

Her head snapped up, and her mouth dropped open in a small 'o' of surprise. I had never spoken to my cousin like this before.

"It _wasn't_ just a hook up," I insisted.

She cocked her head, and it looked as if she was going to speak, but was interrupted when another waitress arrived at our table.

"Hi! I'm Victoria, and I'll be taking care of you tonight."

My head snapped to the girl standing at the table, my brow furrowing in a confused frown, my hand falling listlessly to my lap.

"What happened to Be—the other waitress?"

I didn't know why I couldn't say her name, but for some reason, my throat just closed up when I tried to speak. The new waitress eyed me speculatively.

"Oh, something came up and she had to leave." She quickly changed the subject. "So… Can I get you guys something? Drinks? An appetizer?"

What I wanted was for her to tell me what the fuck had happened to Bella. But with the way she was watching me intently, I didn't think that would be a smart choice. I didn't want to give her any ideas, not when _I_ didn't know what the fuck it was that I wanted… So I just sighed and asked for some Jack, straight up.

The waitress—who wasn't Bella—left. Once again, Tanya pulled me out of my reverie by continuing our conversation as if we had never been interrupted.

"Really… not just a hookup?"

I huffed in frustration and just shook my head slightly. Her frown returned.

"But you were obviously surprised to see her. Didn't you know she worked here?"

She was eyeing me in a way similar to what the waitress had done just a few moments before. I just shook my head 'no'. Embarrassed heat seeped beneath my collar at her continued stare. But even when I looked away, she didn't stop staring.

The waitress returned with our drinks. I knocked the whisky back in a single swallow and requested another before picking up the menu. I have no clue what the fuck I ordered. Even when the waitress left, I could still feel Tanya's inquisitive stare. I turned to her with a scowl.

"What?" I snapped.

She just looked at me, silently questioning. Searching Tanya's eyes, I saw curiosity and compassion, as well as the desire to help. I sighed. In all honesty, I could probably use another perspective on this thing. A female perspective. The only person I had talked to thus far was Emmett, but he wasn't really the most objective person in the world. Besides, Tanya had spilled her guts to me earlier…

So I told her.

Not all of the intimate details, but the general gist of the story. How Bella and I had met. The instant… _awareness_… I'd experienced. The intense connection I'd felt. How I'd been searching for her for the past month, to no avail. Sometime while I was talking, our food arrived. I couldn't recall eating any of it. All I could focus on were my recollections of Bella. Before I knew it, the plates were cleared away and I was presented with the check. A quick glance at my watch revealed that an hour had passed; it was now after eleven-thirty. Tanya excused herself to the restroom while I settled the bill.

Ten minutes later, when we were walking down the street towards _New Moon,_ Tanya turned to me.

"It's Swan."

"Huh?" I asked, confused.

She rolled her eyes. "Bella's last name is Swan."

My feet came to a stumbling halt, and I grabbed Tanya's arm, swiveling her around so that she was looking at me.

"What?"

"And she only works at the restaurant part time while she's finishing grad school. She's starting a full-time teaching position in the fall."

I must have had a dumbstruck look on my face, because Tanya had the smuggest fucking smile I had ever seen.

"When the fuck did you find that out?"

Her smile widened, but she didn't answer. I looked at her pointedly. My scowl deepened and she laughed.

"When I went to the restroom, I might have made a stop by the hostess stand." She shrugged. "Told her that one of the waitresses looked familiar, asked if someone named Bella worked there. Of course, she asked if I meant Bella Swan, which I assured her I did. Then she spilled about grad school and the teaching post."

She shrugged again, and by the look on her face, I suspected that I still looked mind-fucked.

"I might have pushed it a little too far when I asked for her phone number, so I'm afraid you'll have to figure that one out yourself. But at least you have something to go on now."

Yes. Yes, I did.

Bella Swan.

Lost in my thoughts it took me a moment to register that Tanya had turned and resumed the trek towards the club.

"You're welcome," she tossed over her shoulder.

I hurried to catch up, sweeping her into a hug right before we reached the door.

"Thank you," I whispered fervently into her hair.

Her arms circled my waist and gave a friendly hug. "Least I could do after you listened to my bitch-fest concerning Emmett," she replied with a chuckle.

Releasing her, I pushed open the door and ushered her through. It was immediately apparent that there was a good crowd this evening; all the tables were full and it was standing-room only. We pushed our way to the main bar, where I spent a few moments chatting with the bartender, Alec.

Eventually, we made our way to the back of the building, where the pianos were situated. Jasper was dueling away with Garrett, and I had to admit that it was a great show—the two played off each other as if they had been performing together for years, Jasper's shy style and sultry southern drawl the perfect foil for Garrett's brash East Coast attitude and sharp tongue. The crowd was obviously into the concert, hooting and hollering along with the suggestive routine and lyrics.

We stood in the back of the room until the set came to a close. Garrett announced a fifteen minute break—they'd been playing for almost an hour and a half without one—and the crowd booed good-naturedly. Popular music piped into the room and the crowd settled.

Jasper and Garrett climbed down from the platform and walked together to the bar to get a drink, Jasper looking around with a frown on their trek across the room. I walked over to greet them with a handshake.

"Great show, guys. Sounds fantastic!"

"Thanks, man," Garrett replied with a grin. He turned to Jasper with a playful fist to the shoulder. "This guy has real talent. The crowd loves him. Don't mean to insult you, Ed, but he might be even better than you…"

Garrett slapped him on the back and turned to the bar to order a drink. Jasper frowned some more, and he looked a bit uncomfortable when he realized that Garrett was telling the truth; the crowd—well, the women at least—were checking him out. Then he looked to me with an even deeper frown. I wondered if he was worried about how I would interpret that last statement, and I couldn't help but laugh at the thought.

"That's just because I hate entertaining," I deflected.

I'd only played the pianos here a few times, and only then because there was no one else to fill in. And while I had to admit that it was good for business—the women poured into the club on nights that I played—I really did hate being the center of attention. I was more than happy to find another performer. I turned to Jasper.

"You do sound great," I assured. "How'd you like to play more often?"

He finally relaxed and smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah. We need another person in the rotation. Besides, anything that keeps me from having to get up there…" I nodded towards the stage.

I stretched my hand out towards him, and he shook it enthusiastically.

"I'll be sure to get you scheduled."

"Thanks!"

But his smile quickly turned back to a contemplative frown as he scanned the room. He pulled out his phone and hit a button before placing it to his ear. After about thirty seconds, his frown deepened.

"You okay, man?" I asked.

"Yeah… I just can't find my cousin. She was here with a few friends, but they disappeared about twenty minutes ago." He typed a quick text message, then continued. "One of the girls she was with looked pretty trashed. I hope they're okay."

His phone beeped, indicating an incoming message, and he glanced at the screen. "Ah… bathroom."

A few moments later, a woman appeared at his side. All I could do was stare. Logically, I knew that she was one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. Long, blonde hair fell over her shoulders. She had movie-star good looks and a great rack—hey, I'm a guy, and we notice shit like that. But I didn't feel anything for her beyond appreciation of her exquisite physical beauty. That bothered me. In the past, this would have been the exact kind of girl I would have gone for. Today? All I could see were the million fucking ways that she _wasn't_ Bella.

"Edward, this is my cousin, Rosalie Hale. Rose, this is Edward Cullen."

She turned to me as Jasper made introductions and her eyes widened in surprise. It was a reaction I was used to so I slapped on a polite smile. But when I reached out to shake her hand, her eyes narrowed into angry slits and she fucking bristled at my presence. _That_ was a reaction I wasn't used to.

"I _know _who he is," she spat, refusing to take my hand.

"Nice to meet you, Rosalie," I stated, even though it was a blatant falsehood.

She scowled at me, confirming my assessment. Baffled by her obviously hostile response, I dropped my hand and quickly shifted my gaze to Tanya in order to introduce her. Since Jasper had introduced Rosalie as his cousin, I opted to do the same.

"My cousin, Tanya Denali."

The angry look disappeared from Rosalie's face, a confused frown taking its place. Unlike my offering, she accepted Tanya's outstretched hand, although the handshake was very brief and a look of discomfort crossed her face. After saying 'hello' she turned back to her cousin.

"I'm sorry Jas, but we're gonna have to go. B— uh… Alice's roommate isn't feeling well; too much to drink."

I swore that she shot me another dirty look before she left.

As soon as she departed, Tanya turned to Jasper. "You really do sound great. Do you have a band? Are you looking for an agent?"

I chuckled at Tanya's questions. She'd obviously been thinking along the same lines as I had. Jasper looked from her to me in confusion.

"She works at the agency," I told him, and Jasper nodded in understanding.

What I didn't tell him was that Tanya had one of the best ears for musical talent that I'd ever encountered. I turned to her.

"So… What do you think, cuz?"

She turned to Jasper with a smile. "Trust me, Jasper. You'll make it. Talent like yours… well, I know music—what people like—and you're it. When you decide you're ready to go public, give me a call."

She pulled out a business card and handed it to him. Jasper took it with a small frown and turned to me. I smiled and shrugged. Pocketing her card, he thanked Tanya, and taking that as a cue, she launched into a spiel about the agency and how representation worked. I chuckled at her single mindedness. Until Alec indicated that it was time for the pianos to resume.

"Speaking of the talent, let's not keep him, T," I drawled, and she flushed.

Jasper and Garrett walked back to the raised dais and I leaned back against the bar in order to take in the show. The guys soon had the crowd all riled up—singing and dancing along with them—but my attention wandered from the spectacle on the stage. Although I managed to look interested and clap at all the right places, I didn't see or hear a thing that was going on in that room. Instead, I was thinking of Bella and replaying our night together. All I saw was brown hair, brown eyes and butterfly tattoos. All I heard was the music of her moans. My fists clenched at my sides in frustration and anticipation.

I vowed that I wouldn't sleep until I tracked her down, because thoughts of Bella were driving me fucking crazy. Literally, not just metaphorically.

_Fuck! I had to find her._

Otherwise, she was going to be the fucking death of me.

* * *

**A/N:** Next chapter will be Alice POV. We'll learn a little bit about what happened to her in New York, see some of her first interactions with Jasper, and get some more insight to Edward and Bella.

This has been a fun little story. Originally, I started this as an erotic exercise, with each chapter being a 'lemon-shot' of sorts. However, it's turned into a little bit more of an actual story than I originally envisioned, so we may not be quite so lemony over the next few chapters. Don't worry though… I will be returning to lemon-centric chapters for the last 4-5 installments.

In the meantime, if you want some lemon action, go check out my entry for the Cherry Exchange contest: _Everything She Does is Magic_. Witchy Bella casts a love spell on Edward, and the results cause her to question everything she's ever believed about life and love. It's a supernatural story.

www (dot) fanfiction (dot) net / s / 6442396 / 1 /

Thank you so much for sticking with me!

KL


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